Federal immigration enforcement activity has recently been reported in areas surrounding Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus, according to an email sent to the Tufts community from the Office of Public Safety. The office and the municipalities of Somerville and Medford are coordinating efforts to monitor the situation.
The university advised students who encounter immigration officials around campus to call Tufts University Police Department dispatch, which can then enact protocols already in place to respond to the presence of government officials. Protocols include notifying the Office of University Counsel, which will determine whether information requests from government officials are valid and, if so, how to respond.
Tufts Department of Public Safety also shared several tips to ensure community safety, including not holding doors for unfamiliar people or letting individuals into buildings without Tufts IDs and reporting any suspicious behavior to the TUPD emergency line.
Details of the reports received by the university were not immediately clear, though multiple local residents reported sighting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in parts of Medford and Somerville, according to social media posts." There have been reports of ICE officers in Davis Square in the past week, according to recent Facebook and Reddit posts.
According to The Boston Globe, Somerville residents have expressed concerns that their city could be ICE’s next target. In the wake of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, as well as ICE’s recent presence in Maine, some residents worry that liberal cities like Somerville may be at risk. Somerville made national headlines last year after ICE detained Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, increasing residents’ concerns.
In the past year, the cities of Somerville and Medford have reinforced their commitment to protect residents from being targeted by federal immigration enforcement. In response to recent fatal encounters involving federal agents, Medford city officials passed a resolution stating that ICE is not welcome in the community.
Community members involved in ICE monitoring encourage individuals who see unidentified or suspicious activity in the Medford/Somerville area to call or text the LUCE hotline, which operates daily from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. The LUCE Immigrant Network is a Massachusetts-based immigrant defense network that mobilizes community members across the state to respond to ICE activity, providing real time verification and support to fight back against detention and deportation.
