Overview
- Governor Maura Healey announced the guidance on Thursday, May 28, clarifying how schools, child care centers, higher-education campuses, health facilities, and places of worship should respond when ICE appears.
- The guidance directs institutions to require judicial warrants before allowing ICE into nonpublic areas, to document encounters, to call attorneys, and to avoid physically confronting agents.
- The actions reinforce Healey’s January executive order that bars civil ICE arrests in nonpublic state facility areas without a judge’s warrant, prohibits state property from serving as staging areas, and limits new ICE agreements with local law enforcement except for documented public-safety needs.
- A central dispute driving the federal pushback concerns Massachusetts' RMV policy that issues confidential or undercover license plates only to Homeland Security Investigations for certified criminal probes and denies them to ICE, which the federal government says endangers agents and treats ICE operations as civil.
- The showdown could lead to litigation or federal enforcement steps, and the guidance is meant to protect immigrant families’ access to schools, health care and worship while state officials monitor federal responses and advise institutions on concrete steps to limit ICE access.