Thread: Massachusetts - Immigration, inmate bill votes expected in House

Colin A. Young/State House News Service 3 hrs ago

The Massachusetts House is expected to take it first legislative action in response to the Trump administration Wednesday, the first fruit of Speaker Robert DeLeo's Trump working group.

Bills filed by Rep. Antonio Cabral of New Bedford and endorsed by the working group created to respond to the Trump administration — dubbed by Majority Leader Ron Mariano "The Therapy Committee" — are expected to come to a vote after 1 p.m.

One bill (H 3034) would prevent inmates in Massachusetts from being sent to labor on out-of-state projects, including Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson's proposal to offer inmate labor to help build a wall on the border with Mexico.

The second (H 3033) seeks to prevent the use of state resources to carry out agreements that delegate Immigration and Customs Enforcement authority to officers at the state or local level.

The sheriffs of Bristol and Plymouth counties and the state Department of Correction have signed such agreements, though their officers have not yet received the training necessary to carry them out.

Hodgson last week said that if the Legislature passes the bills "it will show once again that personal political agendas are more important than keeping our citizens and legal residents safe."

Roll call votes are expected to begin at 1 p.m.

http://www.salemnews.com/news/immigr...7b1e73c97.html

Mass. House Lawmakers Postpone Vote On Bill Aimed At Countering Trump's Immigration Crackdown

May 24, 2017
By Matt Murphy, State House News Service

Massachusetts House leaders indefinitely postponed a planned vote Wednesday on legislation recommended by Democrats as a response to President Donald Trump's illegal immigration crackdown.

The bill would prevent state resources from being used to execute agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to train state and local law enforcement to act as federal immigration agents.

On Twitter, Republican Rep. Marc Lombardo of Billerica credited the "calls, emails, & strong voice" of opponents to the "sanctuary state bill" for getting it temporarily tabled.

Marc Lombardo @MarcTLombardo
Your voice was heard! As a result of your calls, emails, & strong voice, sanctuary state bill H3033 has been temporarily tabled #Billerica
10:27 AM - 24 May 2017

Filed by New Bedford Rep. Antonio Cabral, the bill was one of two that House Speaker Robert DeLeo of Winthrop had scheduled for debate on Wednesday that had been recommended by the Judiciary Committee and a special House working group tasked with crafting responses to President Trump's policy agenda.

"We're disappointed. We thought that this was a very good step forward," said Marion Davis, communications director for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. She told the News Service, "We feel that it's important for the House to take a strong stand that Massachusetts resources should be used for Massachusetts people, not to implement a federal deportation agenda."

A spokesman for House Speaker Robert DeLeo confirmed that many House members had questions about the bill (H 3033) and said it was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee "to provide more time."

The House advanced another bill that would prevent sheriffs from offering state inmates as labor outside of Massachusetts. Also filed by Cabral, the legislation was a direct response to Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson's suggestion that he would offer to use prisoners from his facilities to help build a wall along the border with Mexico.

The postponed legislation would prohibit any state money from being used to implement what is known as a 287G agreement with Immigration and Customs and Enforcement to train local law enforcement or correction officers in immigration law.

"Really, they become deputized ICE agents," Cabral said during a recent discussion of the bill with his House colleagues on the Trump working group.

Bristol and Plymouth County sheriffs, along with the Department of Correction, have signed 287G agreements with ICE, according to Cabral, but have not yet sent any correction officers to South Carolina for training.

Federal authorities also prohibit federal tax dollars from being spent to implement the program, which Cabral said would have the effect of making any agreement unenforceable.

Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday reiterated his opposition to using state prisoners for out-of-state labor, but on the immigration enforcement issue he referred back to the policy in place under his predecessor.

"On the second piece, Massachusetts under Gov. Patrick put in place the ability for the DOC, the Department of Correction, to do the kind of analysis and the work with federal immigration officials for dangerous, violent criminals who are inside our prison system and if they determine that they are, in fact, here illegally they work with the feds to have them removed from the country and that's a policy that Gov. Patrick put in place and its a policy that I support," Baker said.

http://www.wbur.org/news/2017/05/24/...resources-bill