Since March 1, activists have reported 26 verified sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and 10 verified abductions in Medford, according to Julia Hendrix, a member of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts’ Medford Hub. ICE activity has been concentrated at the Malden and Cambridge District Courthouses at 4040 Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford, potentially in collaboration with court officers.
These sightings come amid the August passage of the PROTECT Act, a Massachusetts law which limits collaboration between the state and ICE. Sections of the PROTECT Act that restrict unwarranted civil arrests in courthouses become effective on Nov. 3.
“People are fearful of ICE, so they are afraid to go to some of the things that they would have been open to going to before — like open to going to events in public, open to going to things in large gatherings, because there’s that fear,” Catherine Dhingra, Medford’s assistant director of health and human services, said.
According to Hendrix, Medford LUCE Hub has publicly reported more ICE abductions than most other nearby LUCE hubs, including Boston, Somerville and Lynn.
Since last summer, members of Medford LUCE Hub have conducted regular patrols at 4040 Mystic Valley Parkway.
“What we would see a lot of the time is that ICE agents come in advance. They know who they’re looking for. They’re looking for a specific person, and usually two or more vehicles would show up. Officers would go incognito,” Rob, a coordinator for Medford LUCE Hub, explained. Rob chose to appear only by first name and noted he does not speak on behalf of LUCE. “They’re usually wearing street clothes, and they would wait for someone to come out of a courtroom, and if that happens, they would arrest them and just whisk them away into one of their cars.”
According to Rob, ICE officers have used the courthouse’s garage or “sallyport” — an enclosed garage common in courthouses and prisons for transporting detainees — to detain defendants in custody following their hearings.
The public is not allowed to record in the sallyport, leading to challenges for Medford LUCE Hub activists.
To some, this activity suggests cooperation by court officers. “They’ve used the parking garage, which is court property, which they can only get into if court officers let them into it, to take people,” Hendrix explained in an interview with the Daily.
The Massachusetts Trial Court declined to comment on whether officers at the Malden and Cambridge District Courthouses are working with ICE.
With the passage of the PROTECT Act, though, the nature of ICE activity at the courthouses has changed. The PROTECT Act restricts local and state involvement in immigration enforcement, including prohibiting tipping off agents about a person’s release date, time or location unless required by law, warrant or court order.
According to Rob, ICE agents have stopped appearing at the court to pick up defendants at precise times, indicating less collaboration with court officers. “What we’ve been seeing is ICE agents showing up slightly before the docketed start time of like 9 a.m. [or] 11, and then they just have to hang out and wait,” Rob said.
Still, according to Hendrix’s article, ICE sightings have not become any less frequent at the courthouse. “On August 24, 25, and 26 there was one abduction each day,” Hendrix wrote.
In a statement to the Daily, Medford City Council President Zac Bears wrote, “The City Council’s Public Health and Community Safety Committee is working to update our Welcoming City Ordinance to reflect the [PROTECT] Act and ensure our city’s laws are as strong as possible to protect residents from the unlawful actions of ICE and Trump’s federal attack on cities and towns like Medford.”
Medford passed the Welcoming City Ordinance in January 2025 to prohibit using city resources to enforce federal immigration law, but the city has little power over activity at the courthouse.
“The city really doesn’t have any jurisdiction or involvement in any way in the courts,” Medford Director of Communications Steve Smirti said in an interview with the Daily.
Dhingra explained that Medford supports immigrant residents through its multilingual community liaison program. “If someone has any kind of problem or any kind of question, they can call the multilingual line, and then they’re going to get a call back from someone that speaks their language, that lives in their community and can help answer their questions,” Dhingra said.
With the PROTECT Act’s full effective date approaching, tensions remain over ICE activity in Medford. “Hundreds of residents have been asking the Mayor to take stronger action to enforce the city’s ordinances, stand up for our city, and support all of the residents who have been harmed by ICE actions or are living in fear on a daily basis,” Bears wrote.
