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Immigration protections

Updated October 17, 2026

What's happening

Somerville is now pressing the state to match its own sanctuary law. On October 8 the City Council approved a resolution, sponsored by Ward 7 Councilor Emily Hardt and Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen with the whole Council signed on, urging Governor Maura Healey to end the state Department of Correction's 287(g) agreement with ICE, under which people finishing state prison sentences are handed to ICE custody (Oct 8 digest). The resolution notes Massachusetts is the only state with a Democratic governor that keeps such an agreement, and that the PROTECT Act signed in August bans future 287(g) agreements. Ward 7 immigration attorney Christie LaSalle described ICE using in absentia removal orders, rapid transfers and refusals to disclose detainees' locations to frustrate habeas petitions: "unless everyone has due process, nobody has due process." At-large Councilor Ben Wheeler backed it but said the State House Black and Latino Caucus had heard immigrant groups disagree about whether ending the agreement could make things worse right now, and urged colleagues to "stay curious and humble." Copies go to the governor and the delegation.

At home the city rewrote its sanctuary law this spring. On May 28 the Council unanimously ordained an expanded Welcoming Communities Ordinance, Section 2-6 of the city code, that reaches past immigration into surveillance, city contracting and protected speech (digest). The economic damage is running ahead of the legal protections: five immigrant-owned businesses closed in East Somerville between July 2025 and January 2026, more than in the first three years of COVID, and the city has no direct business-relief money left. The next dollars are for lawyers: on September 24 the Council approved another $350,000 from the Immigrant Legal Services Stabilization Fund for immigrants and asylum seekers seeking permanent residency, 10-0 with Ward 2 Councilor JT Scott absent (Legistar).

The story

What the ordinance now says

Somerville declared itself a sanctuary city by resolution in 1987 and ordained the Trust Act in 2014; the Welcoming Community Ordinance replaced it. The current text bars city officers from asking about immigration status except where required for a benefit, bars police from detaining anyone solely on an ICE detainer or administrative warrant, bars ICE access to people in custody without a judicial warrant, requires officers at a federal enforcement scene to "take reasonable steps to verify the identity of the federal agents," and bars schools from requiring immigration information for enrollment.

The May amendments added the teeth. City resources can't facilitate any federal or out-of-state operation targeting activity protected by the First Amendment or the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, with "religious expression" written in at At-large Councilor Kristen Strezo's request. The Law Department must review every new or renewed city contract for compliance, and the city must amend or end any that violates it. A violation is an injury a resident can sue over, and the police chief must report every six months on ICE holds, warrants, notification requests, detentions, transfers and any federal reimbursements. ACLU of Massachusetts attorney Gideon Epstein made the contract provision concrete: Flock Safety license-plate-reader contracts in roughly 80 Massachusetts municipalities share data with ICE, and Somerville is not in that network (digest).

The ordinance is being tested. On July 9 the chief's semiannual report disclosed five ICE detainer requests for people in Somerville police custody; the city honored none, and all five were released before ICE arrived (digest).

Money and resolutions

On December 11, 2025, the outgoing Council unanimously approved $500,000 for immigrant legal services, half moved into the Immigrant Legal Services Stabilization Fund and half spent from it (digest). The second round, $350,000 from the same fund (26-1334), moved without a fight; Office of Immigrant Affairs Director Maria Teresa Nagel called it "really just a procedural matter" when Finance recommended it 5-0 on September 22 (Sept 22 digest).

The Council has used resolutions to push outward. On February 12 it backed a Fourth Amendment resolution aimed at warrantless ICE workplace raids; David Gibbs of the Community Action Agency of Somerville said its Head Start had lost three families directly to deportation and roughly 20 more who simply stopped coming (digest). On March 12 it became the first municipality to back S.2975, State Senator Lydia Edwards's bill requiring a judicial warrant for ICE arrests at courthouses and barring masked agents (digest). The same night it split 6-5 over a youth violence grant that requires uploading police data to CopLink, the through-line to the surveillance fights. The 287(g) resolution is the latest in that line. On October 8 the Council also backed Head Start against federal rollbacks; Gibbs said his staff and families "are not leaving."

Federal pressure on housing and benefits

Office of Housing Stability Director Ellen Shachter told the housing committee on April 15 that a proposed HUD rule on mixed-status households would force 34 Somerville families in Housing Authority units or holding Section 8 vouchers to remove ineligible members or lose housing. She filed comments and suggested priority access to municipal vouchers and inclusionary units as a contingency (digest; Rental assistance). The Human Rights Commission's July 30 report named immigrant rights its top priority, finding that "many immigrants, whether legal or not, are scared to access nongovernmental social services programs for fear of being detained by ICE" (Cambridge | Somerville Independent).

East Somerville

East Somerville Main Streets Executive Director Lindsay Allen told the housing committee on January 28 that five immigrant-owned businesses had closed since July 2025, against three in the first three years of the pandemic, and a December survey found 60% of district businesses reporting declining revenue (digest). The city's answer has been the "Loyal to Local" campaign; staff decided against an explicitly "immigrant-owned business" campaign for fear of making owners targets. Sonia Conde, an Office of Housing Stability employee and East Somerville Community School parent, told WBUR that ICE activity has thinned use of public spaces like the City Line Laundromat (WBUR, Sept 17).

Where immigrant services sit now

The FY27 reorganization split the 13-year-old Office of Immigrant Affairs in two: an Immigrant Advancement Division inside Health and Human Services, and a Language and Communications Access Division inside Communications. Five 10-hour youth outreach positions ended September 30. HHS has committed to a gap analysis on immigrant service needs by June 2027 (FY27 budget; Racial and Social Justice becomes Equity and Belonging).

What's next

  • Undated: Healey's response to the 287(g) resolution.
  • No date set: the next semiannual Welcoming Communities report from the police chief, where any further ICE detainers, holds or transfers will surface.
  • June 2027: the HHS gap analysis of immigrant service needs.