AMHERST — Residents fearful of Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity pressed town leaders Monday to do more to protect immigrants, arguing that documenting arrests is not enough.
“What town residents need to know is whether as a matter of policy, the town will take action against immigration agents and authorities who are acting beyond their authority and breaking federal, state and local law, or otherwise endangering the public,” Human Rights Commission Chairwoman Rani Parker said.
The comments came during a joint meeting of the Town Council, Human Rights Commission and Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, where residents repeatedly questioned whether the town’s policies provide meaningful protections for immigrants.
The town has taken strong stances aimed at protecting immigrant communities from abuses by federal authorities, including through an executive order outlining actions town police and workers can take and a Town Council resolution calling for unlawful immigration enforcement to be prosecuted.
But on Monday Town Manager Paul Bockelman and Police Chief Gabriel Ting clarified that Amherst Police will not physically intervene in ICE operations as they are occurring, even if it would be their personal impulse to do so. Bockelman said it would be irresponsible for municipal employees to attempt to stop an immigration enforcement action in progress because doing so could expose the town to legal liability.
“It might not be legal, and that would be a liability situation for the town, and my responsibility is not to create a liability for the town,” Bockelman said.
Instead, the recommendation is to document, observe and collect information, and rely on the statement issued by Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan that he would handle the prosecution of any illegal federal immigration activity.
“Our job, like any police job, is to collect the evidence and then present it to the district attorney, who makes the judgment on whether to bring a charge,” Bockelman said.
Bockelman and Ting informed members of the panels that, despite appeals for more concrete ways to protect residents from violence, kidnapping and deportation by ICE agents, the town will continue to follow specific protocols for non-cooperation.
Ting said his department is an enforcement agency, not a prosecutor, and there is a misconception that police will be handcuffing ICE agents and interfering on behalf of residents.
“If something happens in real time, are we going to go in there and make a physical arrest? So the answer is probably no, simply because that could be construed as interference or obstruction of justice,” Ting said. “That’s something we cannot do; we cannot break the law to try to enforce the law.”
ICE agents, he said, are dealing with federal law, while Amherst Police have to abide by state and local laws. “They have total jurisdiction,” Ting said.
He disagreed that this is passing the buck, calling it instead a collaboration with the agencies who have the ability to prosecute crimes, including Sullivan and State Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
“We have a policy of dealing with our immigrant community,” Ting said. “Our policies are generalized toward every single entity that way we can specifically respond to any situation within that policy.”
Bockelman said he tried to align his March 3 executive order with actions of Gov. Maura Healey, but the order will have to be updated based on her latest directive issued on May 28. Bockelman is working with town attorney KP Law on this.
The existing order says ICE agents can’t use town parking lots or town public areas to stage operations.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” Bockelman said, adding that he wants to maintain allegiance to the rule of law.
“As a town, we … have been outspoken and clear about our values as a community,” Bockelman said. That includes protecting civil rights, dignity and respect for others.
He said he will be guided by two facts: municipal employees do not participate in federal immigration law, and staff are committed to supporting residents affected by federal immigration enforcement.
Bockelman said Tuesday that questions about ICE come up a lot in neighborhood meetings and he has tried to align those values with what’s in the executive order. He said that no other town Amherst’s size has issued such an executive order, which will require constant review to ensure it’s in compliance with the state.
Parker, the Human Rights Commission chairwoman, said even though she’s been a citizen for four decades, she worries every time she gets into her car that she’ll be pulled over for how she looks, and then become part of the criminal justice system.
“I’m supposed to be safe. I’ve been a citizen for more than 40 years. I’m a person who’s never violated the smallest laws,” Parker said.
Parker and Debora Ferreira, who co-chairs the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, talked about the many vulnerable people in Amherst.
“People are afraid to go to school, to the doctors, to the hospital, people are afraid to go to the grocery store,” Ferreira said.
Ferreira added that she knows two people who have been harassed and arrested by ICE, one who has been deported and the other who is being held in what she described as a “filthy detention center.”
Ferreira said the federal agents are violating the law and for the town to just collect information and take photos makes no sense, pointing out that if she violated the law she would be arrested and taken to jail, yet the town is choosing not to hold ICE agents accountable.
“If we have an executive order with no teeth, which is what you’re telling me, we have an executive order with no enforcement, then it’s not doing anything, it’s just a piece of paper,” Ferreira said.
Ting said to not abide by the law would make Amherst Police a “rogue agency” and “not a legitimate institution.”
Still, Ting said it’s unfortunate that there are limitations, but his department does what it can to collaborate with both the Community Responders for Equity Safety and Service and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department. “We are all in partnership to support our community,” Ting said.
Margaret Smith, a District 4 resident, said the executive order isn’t explicit that an accessible online tool for citizens will exist to submit information about incidents. “Why is this idea omitted from the executive order?” Smith said.
Katie Lazdowski of District 2 and a member of the Amherst hub of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network, has concerns the town isn’t committing to what is happening on the ground, but only referencing hypotheticals.
“There’s nothing imaginary about the threat ICE poses to our community,” Lazdowski said. “Immigrants are already living in fear, scared to leave their homes for fear of being targeted by federal law enforcement.”
Lissa Pierce Bonifaz, who teaches at Fort River School, said the school community has been affected by ICE activity. She said there needs to be a commitment from town officials that public property is off limits for federal enforcement.
“We as teachers need to know if our police chief and those there are going to protect the residents and their children in our town,” Pierce Bonifaz said.
