State Bills Would Restore Immigrant Protections at Schools and Churches

PROVINCETOWN –– A series of bills filed in the state legislature this winter aim to counteract one of the Trump administration’s first acts in 2025 — canceling federal rules that identified “protected areas” such as schools, churches, health-care centers, and courthouses where immigration raids could not take place.

The canceled guidelines had also identified emergency shelters, food banks, and school bus stops as protected areas and said that federal agents can “accomplish our enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals’ access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship, and more.”

Since then, federal immigration agents have repeatedly conducted raids outside schools and bus stops, especially in Minnesota this winter, where teachers’ unions and two school districts filed suit against the Dept. of Homeland Security last month.

On Beacon Hill, Gov. Maura Healey and legislators announced a series of bills in January and February that intend to recreate protected area rules in state law.

Healey’s bill would prohibit schools, child-care centers, health clinics, nursing homes, and hospitals from allowing immigration agents into nonpublic rooms and hallways without a judicial warrant. Her legislation also requires judicial warrants for immigration arrests at state courthouses and would codify rules against arrests during religious services.

Another bill introduced by the legislature’s Black and Latino Caucus would ban immigration arrests without a judicial warrant in the area around courthouses as well.

That bill would also ban law enforcement agents from notifying federal immigration officials of an impending release from custody. This practice persisted in the state even after the Supreme Judicial Court held in 2017 that agencies cannot honor “detainer requests” to hold people beyond the date and time of their scheduled release so that immigration agents can arrest them.

In addition to requiring a judicial warrant for arrests at courthouses, a bill filed by state Sen. Lydia Edwards of Boston would require all law enforcement agents to identify themselves to court officials and prohibit anyone from wearing a mask in a courthouse.

At the Legislature

State Sen. Julian Cyr told the Independent that elements of these bills will likely be combined into a larger package ahead of budget negotiations in mid-April, although it’s not clear exactly which proposals will be included. Cyr said he expects the Senate bill will include “aggressive action” to protect locations like schools and courthouses.

The main concern, according to both Cyr and state Rep. Hadley Luddy, is ensuring that the final law will hold up in court while still being effective. “We have to be sure that whatever we’re doing here in the state can be enforceable,” Luddy said.

Cyr said that the state’s Shield Act 2.0, which became law last August and aims to protect access to gender-affirming and reproductive care in the state, was a template for using state law to counter “an extremist federal government.”

A March 4 public hearing on the Black and Latino Caucus’s bill lasted for almost six hours, as activists, legislators, and educators lined up to speak about the recent actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

After describing a series of federal arrests that she said amounted to “state terror,” state Sen. Liz Miranda of Boston said that “Massachusetts needs to ensure that we aren’t complicit in this and do everything in our power to protect our residents from an overbearing federal government.”

Cyr told the Independent that local police chiefs have told him they’re concerned that immigration arrests in their communities could put bystanders in danger — especially since ICE has shifted to what he called “aggressive, fear-based tactics.”

Luddy said that voters she’s spoken with are worried about “keeping our friends and neighbors safe and protected. These are folks that are a core part of our community, and we need to all be standing up for them.”

“We have failed for more than a generation to address immigration in any meaningful way, while we continue to have an economy that relies on and benefits from immigrants,” Cyr said. “Cape Cod and the Islands wouldn’t run if not for our immigrant workforce.”

On the Outer Cape

While the bills move through hearings on Beacon Hill, church and school leaders here are reviewing their options.

The Rev. Edgar Miranda of the United Methodist Church in Provincetown said he’s posted signs to identify certain parts of the building as private spaces that unauthorized persons cannot enter — a distinction that theoretically should prevent federal agents from entering without a judicial warrant.

The church also has a banner out front that says “Immigrants & Refugees Welcome.” Miranda said that members of the congregation will do “whatever they can” to support the Outer Cape’s immigrants, adding that the congregation sees it as “not just a political issue — it’s a moral issue, a spiritual issue.”

Provincetown Schools Supt. Paul Teixeira said that only an order signed by a judge could grant immigration agents access to the school, and that such an order would have to be presented to him first. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prevents the school from giving out students’ personal information, including immigration status, he said.

Teixeira sent an email to parents in early February reminding them of the school’s precautions and policies on school records and at bus stops.

He told the Independent that Provincetown Schools are a safe place for “all of our students,” adding that “we support and welcome our immigrant families.”

The Rev. Kate Wilkinson, senior minister of the Unitarian Universalist Meeting House in Provincetown, said she worries that state legislation won’t restrain federal ICE agents. “I don’t see ICE as a law-abiding organization,” she said. “Passing legislation is the right thing to do, but it won’t give me comfort.”

Last summer, her congregation was focused on labeling certain spaces as off-limits and learning the differences between administrative and judicial warrants, she said. This winter, people are more focused on assessing “what risks they’re willing to take,” she said, including learning how to properly take video of federal agents and phone numbers to call in the event of arrests.

“We’re just paying attention to what’s happening in other communities,” she said, “so we’re ready if something big happens here.”