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How Massachusetts can limit ICE enforcement – The Boston Globe

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How Massachusetts can limit ICE enforcement – The Boston Globe


Plymouth County Correctional Facility currently holds about 350 detainees on behalf of ICE, marking a sharp increase over the past year. Absent state intervention, the detained population at Plymouth will likely continue to grow under the Trump administration. Sheriff Joseph McDonald recently renewed the county’s contract with ICE for five more years, despite mounting reports of flagrant human rights abuses — including allegations of unsanitary conditions, abusive staff, overcrowding, rotten food, and inadequate health care.

Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren are aware of the abysmal conditions at Plymouth, and have spoken out against the jail’s continued failure to abide by detention standards. The jail is currently under review by the attorney general. As long as there are ICE beds to fill at Plymouth, immigration detention will continue.

Though some have characterized Massachusetts as a sanctuary state, gaps between statewide laws and city policies remain vulnerable to exploitation in service of mass deportation. For example, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center — a fusion center enabling extensive information sharing between federal immigration authorities and local law enforcement — easily sidesteps toothless commitments to non-cooperation. Between 2014 and 2017, the BRIC reported 135 children to ICE after incidents at school, putting them at serious risk of deportation. Ending, or at least vastly limiting, the scope of the BRIC is a concrete step that state and local leaders can take to stymie the information sharing that inevitably leads to detention and deportation.

Three quarters of ICE arrests in the interior of the United States happen as a result of interactions with the criminal legal system. Though a handful of sanctuary cities exist in the Commonwealth, and though case law prohibits law enforcement from holding noncitizens solely on the basis of an ICE detainer, nothing prevents a local sheriff’s office or state prosecutor from notifying ICE of a noncitizen in their custody or courtroom. Elected officials must instruct district attorneys, sheriffs, police chiefs, and other law enforcement officials that they are not to communicate with ICE regarding noncitizens’ presence in jails or courtrooms.

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Moreover, guidance should be provided to district attorney offices to encourage non-prosecution and reduced sentences where possible, to avoid deportation consequences. Healey can also grant pardons to protect longtime residents whose state criminal convictions make them deportable, in consideration of their records of rehabilitation, contributions, and roots in the state.

Finally, Massachusetts must reinstate the state’s right-to-shelter law for all residents. The pipeline from homelessness to deportation is well documented. Healey should reverse her recent decision to impose a strict six-month limit on family stays in shelters. The families in shelters have fled violence, poverty, civil strife, and natural disasters; they are traumatized and struggling to find safety and stability. Unhoused families living on the streets of Massachusetts will be sitting ducks for ICE enforcement efforts under Trump. State leaders can take steps now to protect these families from deportation by reinstating the availability of stable, long-term shelter.

As elected officials consider how to make good on their promises to push back against an increasingly hostile Trump agenda, they should implement these four recommendations. Absent concrete, immediate actions at the state and local level, noncitizen community members in Massachusetts will remain at significant risk of detention, deportation, and family separation.

Sarah Sherman-Stokes is a clinical associate professor of law and associate director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University School of Law. Leah Hastings is a staff attorney at Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts, where she runs the Immigrant Detention Conditions Project.





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Massachusetts

Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit

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Mass. House votes to set new rules for DiZoglio’s audit


Twenty-eight lawmakers dissented Wednesday as the Massachusetts House voted to set new terms around what state Auditor Diana DiZoglio would be able to review in the legislative audit voters authorized her to carry out in 2024.

Almost all House Democrats voted for the measure, which also proposes to make more state government records accessible to the public. Three Democrats — Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, Attleboro Rep. Jim Hawkins and Fall River Rep. Alan Silvia — joined the body’s 25 Republicans in voting no.

Speaker Ron Mariano said the bill responds to an ongoing call from voters for more transparency out of Beacon Hill and provides a path forward in lieu of a what he called “politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution.”

Leaders of the House and Senate have resisted DiZoglio’s audit push, arguing that a probe by the auditor’s office would run afoul of the separation of powers laid out in the state Constitution, bringing the legislative branch under the review of a piece of the executive branch.

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“We are not accountable to any constitutional officer,” said Rep. Mindy Domb, an Amherst Democrat. “We are only accountable to our constituents.”

Taunton Rep. Lisa Field, a Democrat in her first term, said she was among the 72% of Massachusetts voters who backed the audit ballot question in 2024.

“Due to legitimate concerns and questions about constitutional privileges and separation of powers, we have been stuck on this audit issue for more than a year,” Field said. “Let’s not be like Washington, D.C. and accept such gridlock — not about the audit and not about public records. Let’s not let perfect be the enemy of good progress.”

The House’s bill would authorize DiZoglio to review what it defines as the “administrative functions” of the Legislature, going back to the 2021 fiscal year. Those areas include the adoption of annual budgets, official audits of the House and Senate by independent firms, spending by both chambers, and the execution of any financial settlements with lawmakers and employees.

It would also newly apply the state’s public records law to the governor’s office, and create a process by which people could request and receive certain legislative files.

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Massachusetts is currently the only state where the Legislature, governor and judiciary all claim to be exempt from the public records law.

Warren Republican Rep. Todd Smola described the process that led up to Wednesday’s vote as opaque in and of itself. Mariano last week said the House would take up what he called comprehensive transparency legislation, but did not say when or what, specifically, the bill would do.

The bill was circulated to members of the House Ways and Means Committee around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and committee members had a little over a half hour to vote on whether to advance it. Smola, the ranking Republican on the committee, said during that 34-minute window, “we had members on both sides of the political aisle that were calling each other back and forth to say, ‘Can you explain this portion to me?’”

“We are so much better than the process that has unfolded,” he said. “And for the sake of people that are asking us for transparency, that is not transparency. That’s the opposite of transparency.”

Rep. Michael Soter, a Bellingham Republican, said he was particularly concerned with a part of the bill that removes the courts from settling disputes between the auditor and the Legislature.

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He said that by setting its own rules around an audit, the House would be “ensuring the auditor can only see exactly what we allow her to see and nothing more.”

It’s not clear yet if the Senate will pass the bill. Last week, state senators voted to turn over a limited set of documents to DiZoglio. The documents the Senate plans to provide mirror the records she would be allowed to review under the House bill.

Asked if he expected the Senate to agree to the legislation, Mariano on Tuesday said only, “I talked to the Senate.”



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French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston

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French-Mediterranean Eatery Charts Opening In Boston


BOSTON, MA — An international restaurant group with locations across the globe is preparing to open its first Massachusetts restaurant this year.

LPM Restaurant & Bar, a French Riviera-inspired restaurant founded in London, is set to open on the second floor of the Four Seasons Hotel One Dalton Street in Back Bay, according to Four Seasons. The hotel lists the restaurant as “Opening Summer 2026,” while the Boston Business Journal reported the restaurant plans to open in September.

The Boston restaurant will mark LPM’s debut in the Northeast and its third U.S. outpost, following locations in Miami and Las Vegas, according to a Four Seasons announcement.

LPM, also known as La Petite Maison, was founded in London in 2007 and is known for French-Mediterranean food, Mediterranean ingredients and dining rooms influenced by Belle Époque design.

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The business operates locations in London, Dubai, Miami, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Riyadh, Limassol, Doha, Mykonos, Kuwait, Boston, Maldives and Bangkok.

Four Seasons said LPM will take over the space that formerly housed One Dalton’s breakfast concept, One + One. The restaurant will join other dining options at the hotel, including Zuma and Trifecta.

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Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer

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Massachusetts high school under investigation after teachers diagnosed with breast cancer


A Massachusetts high school is under investigation after “several” teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions.

The state Department of Public Health is set to visit Uxbridge High School on Thursday to “conduct a series of air quality tests,” to determine whether the multiple cases are potentially connected.

Superintendent David Ljungberg and Principal Michael Rubin alerted families and district staff on Monday of the “sombering news,” after Uxbridge High School’s graduation over the weekend.

“We are writing to inform you about a concern we are investigating at Uxbridge High School,” Ljungberg and Rubin stated in the letter. “Several female teachers have been diagnosed with breast cancer or precancerous conditions over the past few years.”

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“It is, of course, possible that these multiple cases are not connected to one another,” the leaders added, “but out of abundance of caution, we are looking into any environmental factors at the school that may be a factor in their diagnoses.”

The 123,000-square-foot school, with an enrollment of roughly 600, was constructed in 2012 at a cost of $45 million, including a $22-million state reimbursement.

Uxbridge school leaders say they notified the state Department of Health and local health board as soon as they became aware of the cases, seeking “counsel about how best to proceed.”

“Massachusetts DPH officials have indicated that there is no evidence of immediate danger in the building and no reason to limit access to or use of the facility at this time,” they wrote in their letter. “In fact, the public health officials have commended our decision to approach them with these concerns, our readiness to partner with them in support of the evaluation process.”

Health officials are assessing the school’s interior and exterior to “ensure there are no issues with the infrastructure that would present risks (including electrical, plumbing, mechanical, HVAC, and other systems)” and the indoor and outdoor air quality on campus.

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The superintendent and principal said that state officials have ruled out water supply as a “risk factor” after “thorough testing.”

“The team has reached out to the women who have been diagnosed, requesting data to evaluate whether there may be a connection among their cases,” Ljungberg and Rubin wrote. “We are grateful for their cooperation.”

They added that the state has said discovering an environmental “smoking gun” is “rare” in workplace investigations.

“However, even if a direct causal link is not established,” the leaders wrote, “the administration is utilizing this process to rigorously test the building and guarantee that it meets all safety standards moving forward.”

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