Somerville, along with four other cities and towns in Massachusetts, was listed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a jurisdiction that limits cooperation with federal law enforcement authorities to detain undocumented immigrants, as part of an ICE report released March 20.
This designation is part of ICE's first Weekly Declined Detainer Outcome Report, which federal authorities compiled as a result of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 25. Boston and Cambridge were also listed as non-cooperating cities.
In addition, the report lists requests for custody issued by ICE that were turned down by local jurisdictions betweenJan. 28 and Feb. 3.No Massachusetts city or town was listed as declining a request during that time period, though the report acknowledges that its list may be incomplete.
The City of Somerville has been designated a 'sanctuary city' for 30 years, meaning it does not profile residents to check immigration status or turn undocumented residents over to ICE for potential deportation if they are suspected of civil offenses, according to a Feb. 8 Daily article.
Trump's Jan. 25 executive order called for the federal government to revoke funding for sanctuary cities. Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone has promised that the city will not back down from its sanctuary designation if federal funding is taken away and will deal with the fiscal consequences, according to the Feb. 8 Daily article. Curtatone estimates that the city receives more than $12 million every year from the federal government, though it is unclear how much of that funding could be revoked.
"If we lose this funding, we will tighten our belts, but we will not sell our community values short," Curtatone and Welcome Project Executive Director Ben Echevarria wrote in an open letter in November 2016.
Meanwhile, the cities of Lawrence and Chelsea, both of which have been labeled as sanctuary cities, filed a lawsuit in federal court last month arguing that Trump's executive order to strip federal funding is unlawful. Their lawsuit is still pending, according to a March 22 Boston Globe article.
Curtatone argues that the city's sanctuary status allows for greater trust between law enforcement officials and residents, because people do not need to fear deportation if they report a crime. He also claims that, since Somerville became a sanctuary city in 1987, crime and unemployment rates in the city have dropped significantly.
“These are our neighbors,” Curtatone said in a Jan. 25 speech. “Their kids go to school with our children, they’re our friends, they’re our colleagues and we are not going to treat them like suspects at every turn.”
Somerville included on ICE list of sanctuary cities
