Sheriff Hodgson Fully Supports Reversal of Immigration Detainment Policy

Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson is enthusiastically supporting Governor Charlie Baker's decision to revise an immigration policy in Massachusetts. The move reverses a policy that prevented State Police from detaining illegal immigrants.

Hodgson says after running an arrested illegal immigrant's identity through Immigration and Custom Enforcement's database, ICE can make a determination whether to hold that person for up to 48 hours. "If ICE sees that, and it's red-flagged because ICE had that person in their computer, they're going to contact that agency, like State Police, and say 'Listen, we want to put a detainer on that guy for 48 hours. We want you to hold him until our agents can get there and grab him," said Hodgson.

State police can hold illegal immigrants based on several factors, including being suspected of a threat to national security, having major felony convictions, or are active gang members.

State Police will still not be allowed to stop or arrest people on the sole basis of immigration status.