Dozens of residents, teachers and healthcare providers told the Chelsea City Council they are fearful after several recent immigration enforcement incidents and urged local policymakers to adopt stronger, codified protections limiting ICE access to municipal property and clarifying non-cooperation by local agencies.

Catherine Anderson, a middle-school special-education teacher and president of the Chelsea Teachers Union, told the council the school system has lost roughly 300 students — she described that as a 5% decline — and urged the council to act to reassure families. “We saw back in the spring a terrible incident with several children being detained by ICE after an incident at Chelsea High School,” Anderson said, urging continued steps to protect families and prevent future detentions.

Health care provider Juliana Morris said she has patients who have stopped attending appointments out of fear of enforcement activity near clinics. “The impact that that’s having on their health is incredible,” Morris said, describing missed care and mental-health effects on families.

Speakers described incidents inside and outside courtrooms, fingerprinting concerns for minors, and asked the council to bar ICE from municipal playgrounds, school parking lots and city hall lots absent a clear legal basis. Fran Ruznowski, a long-time resident, called for municipal ordinances to ensure police non-cooperation with ICE and suggested the council create a subcommittee to study possible local ordinances and state-level advocacy.

Councilor Jimenez Rivera moved to take the petition (the “ICE out of Chelsea” petition from LUCE Immigration Justice Network) out of order and proposed forming a subcommittee on conference that would include organizers, Chelsea police, the legal department and council members. Council members generally supported the subcommittee approach as a mechanism to clarify what the city can legally do and to explore codifying long-standing practices; the council agreed to refer the matter to a subcommittee for further work.

Councilors emphasized the limits of municipal authority over federal immigration enforcement. Councilor Todd Taylor and others urged calm and suggested the state legislature may be a more appropriate avenue for some changes, while Councilor Brown and others stressed continued local engagement with residents and police-community outreach. The city manager and staff indicated the subcommittee would help identify what is legally possible and how to implement protections that would strengthen community trust.

The council did not adopt an ordinance during the meeting; it instead established the subcommittee to review the petition and coordinate next steps with relevant stakeholders.