BOSTON — The PROTECT Act Conference Committee today reported out a reconciled version of the PROTECT Act, which limits local and state collaboration with federal immigration authorities and helps to safeguard immigrants and all Massachusetts residents from the federal government’s reckless and brutal immigration enforcement actions.
The urgent need for this bill is heightened by federal agents’ fatal shootings of two U.S. residents in recent weeks and the recent termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians, which has rendered tens of thousands of lawfully present state residents vulnerable to detention and deportation.
“As the recent shooting deaths of longtime Texas resident Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Maine resident Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero demonstrate, the federal government’s immigration enforcement activities remain dangerously out of control,” said the Protecting Massachusetts Communities Coalition. “ICE does not make our neighborhoods safer. The coalition therefore urges the House and Senate to pass the reconciled bill and encourages Governor Healey to sign the PROTECT Act as quickly as possible, to vigorously defend the safety and civil liberties of everyone in Massachusetts.”
The PROTECT Act strictly limits local law enforcement assistance to ICE, bans new 287(g) agreements for civil immigration enforcement and prohibits ICE civil arrests at Massachusetts state courthouses.
The reconciled bill was drafted by a conference committee chaired by Rep. Dan Cahill and Sen. Cindy Friedman after versions of the bill passed the Massachusetts House of Representatives on March 25 and the State Senate on May 21.
The Protecting Massachusetts Communities Coalition offers its deepest thanks to House and Senate leadership for their support of the bill, and to the six-member conference committee for carefully reconciling the two versions. The coalition also extends special thanks to the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus for their work on the bill, and to Governor Maura Healey for her steadfast support of the bill’s principles.
Protecting Massachusetts Communities (PMC) is a coalition working to advance legislation and policy to protect immigrants. PMC is chaired by the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition and the Brazilian Workers Center, and includes the ACLU of Massachusetts, SEIU State Council, 32BJ SEIU , 1199 SEIU, SEIU 509, Massachusetts Teachers Association, and the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA).
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