Chelsea officials and teachers urge law change after juveniles’ fingerprints led to ICE detentions

Chelsea school and community leaders urged the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to bar automatic sharing of juvenile fingerprint records with federal authorities after a wave of deportation-related detentions in the city.

At a committee hearing, Catherine Anderson, president of the Chelsea Teachers Union, said fingerprinting of arrested students sent data “straight to the FBI, and therefore ICE,” which allowed federal officers to appear at local police stations and students’ homes within minutes. “The speed of this domino effect was chilling,” Anderson said.

Why it matters: Witnesses said the current practice breaks trust between immigrant families and local public safety institutions, discourages victims and witnesses from coming forward, and can produce family separation without local due process. Multiple speakers asked the committee to adopt legislation that would prevent juvenile arrest fingerprinting from being disseminated to federal agencies and to expand avenues for expungement so young people and families are not tracked by federal systems.

At the hearing, Sarah Neville, a member of the Chelsea School Committee, described six minors…