Advocates tell committee ICE courthouse arrests chill access to justice; bill would bar civil arrests at courthouses

Advocates told the Joint Judiciary Committee that civil immigration arrests in Massachusetts courthouses are undermining access to state justice and asked lawmakers to adopt a clear prohibition.

"Civil immigration arrests in courthouses create a chilling effect on our justice system," Jen Klein, director of the immigration impact unit at CPCS, said, citing court reports and local practices. Klein said courts reported more than 600 arrests in 2025 and argued that those arrests make it impossible for defendants, victims and witnesses to rely on the court to obtain relief.

Jason Weiss, a law student with Boston University School of Law's Criminal Clinic, said clinics and students similarly see people decline to enter court or testify because of fear of immigration enforcement. "The chilling effect of civil immigration arrests requires that any prohibition be complete," Weiss said, urging lawmakers not to carve exceptions he said would undermine the bill's purpose.

Murad Alcon of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a former prosecutor, told the committee that ICE often executes its own administrative warrants and that the pattern of arrests, which he described as increasingly frequent, interrupts proceedings and leaves unresolved cases when people are taken out of state.

Supporters asked the committee to draft language that covers courthouse grounds and related zones, and to avoid exemptions that would re-create fear for noncitizen court users. The committee did not vote on S.2975 at the hearing.

Next steps: sponsors and advocates said they would provide written language and data to support the committee's consideration.