Let’s support the ACLU of MA, the Alliance for Business Leadership, along with 22 other Massachusetts tech and business leaders; tell Governor Baker to end the practice that enables state agencies to act as an arm of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).  Read the letter.

Tell Governor Baker that you don’t want our state-funded Sheriffs or Corrections Department to support Trump’s new rigorous deportation enforcement. These departments received federal money and training and we want them to refuse any further funds and cease current or planned use of our jails and prisons to hold immigrants waiting for deportation.

Contact MA Governor Baker:
Boston Office, Massachusetts State House, Office of the Governor, Room 280
Boston, MA 02133, Phone: 617.725.4005 888.870.7770 (in state), Fax: 617.727.9725
TTY: 617.727.3666
Springfield Office, Western Massachusetts Office of the Governor, State Office Building, 436 Dwight Street, Suite 300, Springfield, MA 01103, Phone: 413.784.1200
Email form  (scroll down)

Read the ACLU press release.

For more background, according to WBUR:

Currently, the Massachusetts Department of Correction, the Bristol County Sheriff’s Department and the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department all currently have agreements with ICE to house detainees who are awaiting deportation proceedings.

So now:

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is calling on Gov. Charlie Baker to end the state’s participation in a partnership program with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The 287 (g) program trains local law enforcement officers on certain customs enforcement operations, which are likely to expand following President Trump’s executive orders.

Baker’s response to the ACLU et al?

In a statement, William Pitman, a spokesperson for Gov. Baker, said the administration believes the federal government should work toward bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform.

“While the administration has no plans at this time to alter any policies currently in place, members of the administration will continue to monitor the changes,” Pitman added.

There are bills being filed in the legislature that create policy and law that will stop these practices in the future. More to come, we must lobby our state legislators to support these bills and move them through the legislative process.

This is not who we are in Massachusetts.  We need to remind our governor who he represents, and that his 2018 re-election will get a lot of attention.