New Bedford Police Will ‘Lend Assistance’ to ICE If Requested

There is a lot of speculation about what may or may not happen when the new occupants settle into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January.

President-elect Donald Trump has a mandate from voters to do something about the migrant crisis, but what exactly he'll do remains unclear. The Hill reported that candidate Trump promised at a September rally in North Carolina that he would abolish sanctuary cities and states if elected.

"I will ask Congress to pass a law outlawing sanctuary cities nationwide, and we demand the full weight of the federal government on any jurisdiction that refuses to cooperate with (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)," The Hill quoted Trump.

Global Refuge says, "The phrase sanctuary city is not a legal term, but one developed over time and more recently reflecting a response to ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) policies and actions."

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Globalrefuge.org says, "In general, a sanctuary city is a community with a policy, written or unwritten that discourages local law enforcement from reporting the immigration status of individuals unless it involves investigation of a serious crime."

The site further states, "These communities typically do not honor requests by ICE to detain undocumented immigrants whom local agents apprehend for misdemeanor crimes or investigations."

Massachusetts is not a declared sanctuary state, though the Center for Immigration Studies and the Federation for American Immigration Reform count it among the 11 states they identify as sanctuary states based on prior court rulings.

Eight Massachusetts communities claim to be sanctuary cities: Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, Concord, Lawrence, Newton, Northhampton and Somerville.

New Bedford is not a sanctuary city by either a vote of the electorate, of the city council or a declaration from Mayor Jon Mitchell.

Mitchell has repeatedly denied that New Bedford is a sanctuary city.

New Bedford Police Assistant Deputy Chief Scott Carola said "We do not look into immigration status as a matter of procedure when making arrests. We do make a check for warrants, and if one has been issued by a court, we serve it."

"We will notify ICE if we detain someone who they have sought and obtained a detainer/warrant for," he said.

"That's the protocol now, we'll have to see if things change," Chief Paul Oliveira said.

No municipal policy currently exists to prevent the New Bedford Police Department from cooperating with ICE.

"We are not empowered to enforce federal immigration law," Carola said. "We are open to lend assistance to any law enforcement agency that requests it."

Oliveira cited a 2017 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Lunn v. Commonwealth on the "legal limitations on the handling of federal civil immigration detainers."

Oliveira pointed to a memo from the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, Inc. as a result of the ruling which serves as a reminder that "Massachusetts law does not authorize law enforcement officers to detain individuals solely on the basis of a federal civil immigration detainer."