Massachusetts
ICE detainer bill would let Mass. law enforcement hold undocumented immigrants longer
Recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations to detain undocumented immigrants across the country, including in Boston, have renewed in Massachusetts the debate over what are known as ICE detainers.
A pair of state legislators have filed a bill that would give local law enforcement the power to hold undocumented immigrants for up to 36 hours beyond their standard release from custody, saying it would reduce the likelihood of ICE operations in communities and the arrests happen at prisons and courts instead.
State Rep. Michael Soter, R-Bellingham, a co-sponsor of the bill, said it would take away a lot of the “visual and the fear of” ICE operations, while only apply to “criminals that are here illegally.”
In 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that local and state law enforcement cannot hold a person to comply with ICE requests — legal precedent Norfolk County Sheriff Patrick McDermott referred to after ICE complained that his office ignored a 2023 request to hold a Haitian national whom they arrested in Boston last week.
“We cannot violate a person’s due process by holding them beyond their legally stipulated term of confinement. We comply fully, within our authority. We remain willing to communicate with ICE and we appreciate the work of all law enforcement to keep our communities safe,” McDermott said in a statement, noting that his office had notified ICE about the man, but no one had picked him up.
As President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda takes shape, many in Massachusetts are concerned about the future while others are applauding the changes.
Worcester County Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis supports the ICE detainer bill.
“As sheriff I raised my right hand and took the oath of office to protect my community and I think this is a tool I would like to have to help protect my community,” he said.
Evangelidis said he’s seen ICE detainer requests spike in the last three years, with the influx of migrant families to Massachusetts.
“We’ve noticed that our detainers that have been launched here have tripled from say 2021 to last year, so I thought this problem is getting more acute and I’m starting to see more and more people walk out. So I thought, ‘Do we need to close this loophole?’” he said.
But attorney Leah Hastings, at Prisoner’s Legal Services of Massachusetts, said local law enforcement already communicates with ICE and does not need to help further, as “another arm of ICE, doing the work of ICE for ICE while being paid by Massachusetts taxpayers.”
We’re going to the experts to answer common questions about immigration.
Hastings noted that those released from custody by judges are deemed safe enough to do so, as happens for everyone processed by the criminal justice system.
“It isn’t a question of whether they pose any danger to the community, it’s only a question of whether ICE is able to deport them,” she said.
NBC10 Boston reached out to Gov. Maura Healey and Attorney General Andrae Joy Campbell to ask for comment on the proposal.
Massachusetts
Close-knit Massachusetts figure skating community supporting each other after deadly plane crash
LEXINGTON – The figure skating community in Massachusetts is lending support to each other after a plane crash near Washington, D.C. left six members of their community dead.
Figure skaters knew each other
Earlier this month WBZ-TV introduced viewers to Simon Mintz and Annie Huang. The pair of figure skating teens were bound for the U.S. Nationals in Wichita. Those who don’t qualify can go to an elite camp that follows the competition. It’s the same event that skaters were flying back from when their plane crashed into a military helicopter near Washington, D.C. No one survived.
WBZ-TV spoke with Mintz’s parents. They said had their son not qualified for the U.S. Nationals, he mostly likely would have been at the camp and possibly returning home on that flight. The notion has been on their minds.
“It’s eerie,” said Simon’s mother Linda Wertheimer Mintz.
“We flew through Dallas, not D.C., but we just as easily could have gone through D.C.,” added Pavlik Mintz, Simon’s father.
They returned to Massachusetts last week, yet all day Thursday, the Mintzes have fielded texts and messages from people concerned they too were on the flight.
“It could have been us if they went to the camp this year instead of the championships,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz, adding that Simon has been at the camp before, “We definitely knew both of the young skaters who were killed, not as great friends, but we knew them. And totally knew about Maxim Naumov’s parents. Over the years, we’ve certainly seen them around said, ‘Hi,’ to them.”
A second family
The parents of skater Maxim Naumov were Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, two coaches killed on the flight. Also in the crash were skaters Spencer Lane and Jinna Han, along with their mothers.
“I remember going to the Edge in Bedford with my son for a skating lesson, and Maxim was practicing with his dad,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz.
Simon and Annie recently were at a U.S. Nationals send off party at the Skating Club of Boston. They said Lane and Han were in attendance.
“The kids in particular would have been there sitting right near Simon and his partner,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz, “When your kid becomes a skater, it’s like you all of a sudden have a second family.”
She has been messaging with other skate parents who have been trying to lend support to those who knew the families.
“I talked to one mom whose kid knew the kids, and they were heading out to be with their coaches,” said Linda Wertheimer Mintz, “It’s not just about being a tight community, this was the past, the present, and the future of U.S. figure skating that was on that plane too.”
Massachusetts
Outlook for Massachusetts shelter system is hazy as cash runs dry and time runs out – The Boston Globe
Publicly, the Legislature has not put out a plan of how it will pay the bills and create new guidelines for the system. Governor Maura Healey delivered many of her own proposals in a letter, not actual legislation, and there’s no clarity on when the state Legislature could act to pour more money into the system, or what seismic policy shifts lawmakers could also embrace.
At the same time, President Trump is already tearing down tentpoles of the federal immigration system that many migrant families have relied upon, including two Biden-era programs under which migrants have been given permission to temporarily work and live in the country.
In other words: An already unprecedented situation is barreling into unknown territory, perhaps as soon as Friday.
That’s when Healey administration officials say they’ll be unable to make any payments or enter contracts for services within the emergency shelter system, absent a new infusion of cash. It’s left the nonprofit providers who the state has tapped to run shelters statewide skittish about the future.
“Providers in everyone’s districts are putting more urgency to the need for funding,” state Senator Michael Moore, a Millbury Democrat, said Wednesday after Healey administration officials briefed Senate Democrats. “They’re worried about the funding not being there for them to pay for the services after the deadline.”
State officials said there’s often a lag between when providers bill them and when they’re paid. But it wasn’t immediately clear what would happen should Friday come and go without the Legislature approving more money for the system.
One housing provider, who requested anonymity to discuss communications with the state, told the Globe that Healey administration officials informed their organization that it would receive funding in February to cover January costs, but that payments would otherwise stop if the Legislature doesn’t act by Friday.
The system, and the Legislature, have faced similar pressure before. Lawmakers passed a supplemental spending bill at the end of April last year at a time when Healey said funding was running low.
Months earlier, her administration warned the system would run out of cash early in 2024 if the state did not set a limit on how many families could enter the system — as well as receive more funding from the Legislature. Healey ultimately capped the system at 7,500 families — a limit that remains today — and the Legislature pushed an overdue spending bill to Healey’s desk over Republican objections with weeks to spare.
The latest attempt, however, has its own complications. Healey initially asked lawmakers in early January to dedicate $425 million to the system, while also cutting the length of stay in the shelter system from nine months to six.
Then, days later, she proposed a series of dramatic changes to the state’s unique right-to-shelter law. But she made that request in a letter, without proposing actual legislation, prompting a series of questions from House leaders who said they needed more information before proposing their own bill.
Members of Healey’s Cabinet sent back a 23-page response Monday night, but they did not say how much their various proposals could ultimately save the state — information that would otherwise influence how much money lawmakers set aside for the system for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in June.
The circumstances have left the Legislature’s Democratic leaders to weigh far-reaching policy and funding decisions while facing a short clock and their own internal limitations. The House and Senate have yet to announce committee or leadership assignments, assign first-year lawmakers to offices, or vote on rules that will govern their two-year legislative calendar. All legislators began their new term on Jan. 1.
At a news conference Wednesday, Healey declined to give more detail about how the state will continue to fund the system. Lawmakers have not filed legislation of their own and the House, which must act first, does not have a formal session scheduled this week, when a spending bill could theoretically emerge for a vote.
State Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the House budget chief who sent Healey officials questions last week, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
“I know discussions are going on right now with the Legislature. I know they’re aware of the calendar on this,” Healey told reporters at an unrelated event at her office Wednesday. “So hopefully we’ll be able to get some resolution.”
Down the hall, Healey’s housing secretary, Ed Augustus, gave a closed-door presentation on the shelter system to Senate Democrats. But he declined to divulge what was discussed to reporters, or whether he gave a similar meeting to House members. He also didn’t respond to a Globe reporter who asked what the plan is for when the cash runs dry.
It’s also unclear if senators were satisfied with the answers they received.
“Lots of questions, lots of questions,” state Senator Cindy Friedman, an Arlington Democrat, told reporters after she left the meeting. She declined to further comment.
The shelter system has sagged under soaring demand in the last few years, demand fueled in part by a surge in migrants fleeing violence and economic instability in their home countries. A report Healey officials filed with lawmakers Monday said that nearly 700 families had applied for shelter in the two weeks between Jan. 9 and Jan. 23, while just 220 families exited the system.
State officials said there were 6,290 families in the system as of Wednesday, far below the state-imposed cap.
Healey has repeatedly sought to tighten the system, and pledged to move out the thousands of families currently being housed in hotels or motels by year’s end. She told lawmakers earlier this month she wants a variety of changes to state law, including eliminating so-called presumed eligibility in the state’s screening process.
Under current law, shelter applicants don’t need to provide documentation upfront that they meet the system’s wide-ranging eligibility requirements. Healey instead wants to require that the state first verify identity, residency, and other information before someone is admitted to the system.
Healey also wants a requirement that all shelter applicants show they have “an intent to remain in Massachusetts,” either through what she called “independent documentary verification,” or by having a “physical presence” here over the previous three months. She also proposed reducing the length of stay in the shelter system from nine months to six.
State Senator Liz Miranda, a Roxbury Democrat, said some of the Healey administration’s proposals give her pause.
“People can’t find housing in six months, right? They can’t find it in nine months,” she said.
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at samantha.gross@globe.com. Follow her @samanthajgross. Matt Stout can be reached at matt.stout@globe.com. Follow him @mattpstout.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts education test scores back to top in the nation, but still behind pre-pandemic
Massachusetts’s students are back to being the top in the U.S. for all categories in a test known as the “Nation’s Report Card” — but still remain well behind the state’s pre-pandemic scores.
“Massachusetts continues to prioritize education, and so while today’s results are not quite where we want them to be — we want to be number one for all students — there is recognition of the work to get there,” Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said Wednesday. … “Our fourth grade math scores are back to pre-pandemic levels. While nationally gaps increased, they did not here. They still exist, and we have work to do, but they are not getting worse.”
The National Assessment of Education Progress tests, which have been administered to a sample of fourth and eighth graders in math and reading nationwide every two years since the 1990s, showed Massachusetts students to be the highest scorers in all four categories. Students both in the state and across the country remained unable to quite catch up to their pre-pandemic peers.
In 2022, Massachusetts students’ scores hit their lowest point since 2003, and the state dropped into second place for 4th-grade math and 8th-grade reading. Across the country in 2022, scores hit record lows and not a single state saw significant improvement.
In 2024, Massachusetts scores remained relatively stagnant for eighth-grade math and both grades in reading. Only fourth-grade math saw relative improvement — echoing slight improvement in these scores across the country.
Nationally, 2024 scores remained relatively stable from 2022 in eighth-grade math and declined for both grades in reading.
Boston Public Schools was also one of several larger school districts with progress in fourth-grade math scores.
Tutwiler said so far “progress is slow,” but the administration is “building a foundation to go fast” with investments in initiatives like early literacy learning.
Healey highlighted some investments Wednesday, including a $25 million investment in “high dosage tutoring” in the governor’s proposed budget for the next year.
“We want to reach 10,000 students immediately through this initiative to address pandemic related learning loss and accelerate learning growth for students in kindergarten through grade three by prioritizing students in grade one,” Tutwiler said of the tutoring investment.
Across the nation and Massachusetts, gaps also widened between higher-performing and lower-performing students, with the lowest performing students nationwide now about 100 points behind the highest.
“This growing achievement gap between high- and low-performing students is troubling,” said Martin West, Vice Chair of the NAEP Governing Board and a member of the Massachusetts State Board of Education. “We made progress in closing this gap until around 2010, but it’s been steadily widening since.”
Massachusetts officials said they are “well aware” of gaps and leaning into “investments and strategies to address them.
“The rollback is not going to be short,” said Tutwiler. “We’re talking about adaptive challenges. We’re talking about working with students directly who experience major disruptions in their learning. This is not a quick fix. It’s going to take time, but as the results are clearly indicating, we’re getting the work done.”
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