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Supporters urge Massachusetts to bar local cooperation with ICE and fund immigrant legal defense
Summary
At a Joint Committee hearing on the Safe Communities Act (H.2580/S.1681), medical professionals, unions, legal aid groups and business leaders testified largely in favor of banning local collaboration with ICE, outlawing 287(g) deputizations and establishing state-funded deportation legal defense; opponents urged prioritizing deportation of serious criminals.
Lawmakers heard hours of testimony in favor of the Safe Communities Act — House Bill H.2580 and Senate Bill S.1681 — as advocates, health-care professionals, unions and small-business leaders argued that local collaboration with federal immigration enforcement is undermining public safety and public health across the Commonwealth.
Sunny Robinson, who opened the panel, told the joint committee on public safety and homeland security that the bills would "prohibit local police from doing ICE's work" and help ensure residents can "seek police and court protection without fear of immigration consequences." She added that police should be "free to do community policing, not act as ICE agents."
Medical witnesses said fear of immigration enforcement is…
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