Forum On Safe Communities Act Draws Crowd At The Library

The Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff James M. Cummings applied for and was approved for this type of agreement last month. Last week the Barnstable County Assembly rejected a proposed resolution to oppose this type of partnership.

“I had been following the story about Sheriff Cummings and wanted to learn the details of the bill,” Falmouth resident Erica M. Szuplat said.

The event on Monday was co-sponsored by Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities, Falmouth’s No Place for Hate, the Falmouth Democratic Town Committee, the Falmouth Racial Justice League and MIRA (Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy), among others.

State Senator Viriato M. de Macedo also attended the event and Pamela B. Rothstein with No Place for Hate read a statement from Susan L. Moran, chairman of the Falmouth Board of Selectmen, who could not attend because she was at the board’s weekly meeting that night.

Ms. Moran’s statement voiced support of Falmouth Police Chief Edward A. Dunne’s previous message that the Falmouth Police Department would not be changing how it operates in the community after President Donald J. Trump reissued the Secure Communities Program, which allows these links between ICE and local law enforcement. Falmouth police were also at the forum.

Engage Falmouth founder Jarita A. Davis introduced two speakers, Mark Gabriele with the Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities and Liza J. Ryan the director of organizing at MIRA, based in Boston, explaining that the issue is now close to home with Sherriff Cumming’s decision to partner with ICE.

Mr. Gabriele said his organization from Orleans was formed in reaction to President Trump’s executive orders on immigration. The group has helped pass four safe community resolutions in the Cape towns of Wellfleet, Eastham, Dennis and Brewster and continues to make pathways to other areas on the Cape.

He explained details of the Safe Communities Act sponsored by State Senator Jamie Eldridge and State Representative Juana Matias, which is written to support the civil rights and safety of all state citizens.

MIRA reports that one in six Massachusetts citizens are immigrants ranging from a variety of countries, including China, Brazil, Haiti, El Salvador, Vietnam and others, Ms. Ryan said.

Mr. Gabriele described the bill as keeping a fine line between federal and state operations. The bill would nullify any 287(g) agreements. Mr. Gabriele and Ms. Ryan said that the act makes fiscal sense to the state. Under the 287(g) program, local officers would be doing a federal job at the expense of local taxpayers, who fund their salaries.

Ms. Ryan said, “287(g) takes our state dollars to pay for federal jobs.”

A concern is that the program can open the door to immigration investigations and possible deportations for people arrested for civil offenses or those who are not proven guilty.

“It’s not a criminal offense to be here without proper documentation,” Ms. Ryan said. “It’s a civil offense.”

She compared this offense to a parking ticket.

Mr. Gabriele addressed some misconceptions about the bill. If passed, the act would not stop local police from investigating and prosecuting crimes, would not stop collaboration between ICE in criminal investigations and would not stop federal funding coming into the state.

At this point the 287(g) program is run with county jails. Agreements have been made with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections and the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office. Mr. Gabriele estimated that about 70 of these agreements have been made nationwide. Massachusetts is the only New England state to have offices participating in the 287(g) program.

The Safe Communities Act was filed and the bill was referred to the Joint Committee On Public Safety and Homeland Security, Mr. Gabriele said. A local representative on the committee is State Representative David T. Vieira. The bill needs to be referred out of this committee by February 8 to be eligible for a vote.

Ms. Ryan discussed how immigration policy is being played out today with the Trump Administration’s announcement that close to 200,000 Salvadorans granted protection after the 2001 earthquakes would no longer have safe harbor in the United States and may be deported in the coming year. She said that these people were holding thousands of mortgages and jobs in the country and had children here.

She said that with this bill pending Massachusetts is at the center of a bigger movement, a white nationalist struggle, citing Bristol County Sheriff Thomas M. Hodgson as a major player in the anti-immigration movement across the country. Millions of dollars are coming into the state to fight this bill she said.

“We are in the center of a battle,” Ms. Ryan said.

Also on the table is a bill submitted by Governor Charles D. Baker Jr. that would give local officers more leeway to work with ICE in cases in which people may be a threat to public safety, challenging a decision in July by the Massachusetts Judicial Court that said local officers did not have the authority to issue detainers for civil immigration offenses.

Ms. Ryan said that she is cautiously optimistic that the Safe Communities Act bill will come out of committee. She said that it needs support from central Massachusetts and the South Shore area.

“I have four grandparents who were immigrants,” said a Falmouth woman, who asked not to be named in this article.

“I think it is like what she [Ms. Ryan] said; we are dealing with people who want a different kind of country.”