Displaying items by tag: immigration - InBrockton - InBrockton http://inbrockton.com Mon, 16 Sep 2019 10:58:32 -0400 Joomla! - Open Source Content Management en-gb Brockton United? http://inbrockton.com/~vvgsuwgv/item/23-brockton-united http://inbrockton.com/~vvgsuwgv/item/23-brockton-united

The Brockton United Ordinance that was proposed on January 19th to the city council is a mistake.  You should read it and understand what the words mean.  Thanks to Win Farwell for the text of the ordinance that I will attach to this document.  The problematic language is in Section B:

B.    The Massachusetts General Laws do not authorize the Department to arrest or detain an individual solely on the basis of an immigration detainer.  Consequently, BPD officers or employees will not continue to hold a person beyond the time when he or she is released from local custody on the sole basis of an ICE detainer and will not extend the length of detention by any amount of time before the individual is transferred to court or admitted to bail for the purpose of allowing immigration authorities time to apprehend him or her.

An ICE detainer is only issued on illegal aliens who have already committed a crime.  Also, the ordinance already says that Massachusetts law already says not to arrest someone solely on the basis of an ICE detainer.   People who call in reporting a crime don’t get run for warrants either, so there is no way to know if a person calling has an ICE detainer.  If someone has done something bad enough to be arrested for and there is a detainer that is an indication that someone has already committed a crime, wouldn’t you want that person removed?

Also, there is problematic language in Section C:

C.    The Brockton Police Department will not provide federal immigration authorities information relating to the incarceration status, length of detention, home address, work address, hearing information, or pending release of a person in police custody or who has come to the attention of the police, except for the information that is available through the Massachusetts Public Records Laws, G.L. c. 66, Section 10 and G.L. c. 4, Section 7 (twenty-sixth).

This language is actually a direction to the BPD to stonewall the Federal Government.  If you look at the Massachusetts General Laws stated, the information that the ordinance directs the Brockton Police that they cannot provide is allowed to be provided.  Given that it is in the public record this is a clear contradiction.

When you are arrested or checked for warrants, your immigration status is not listed.  The only way that Brockton Police would know your immigration status is if you were arrested previously and charged with a crime and an ICE detainer exists.  Even if you are an illegal alien, if you haven’t committed any crimes (other than immigrating illegally) then you will not be on ICE’s radar at all.

The only thing this ordinance does is give more advantage to the criminal alien by not allowing ICE to detain and deport them because of other crimes.  Read up on it, read up on similar ordinances, read the actual ordinance.  Be informed.

Brockton United Ordinance

Information on ICE Detainers

drheidke@comcast.net (David Heidke) Brockton News Wed, 08 May 2019 13:28:54 -0400