3 days Ago
(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To The Last Post Of The Week From The Blog's Favourite Living Canadian) From the Boston Globe: Shots fired. "Every tool in the toolbox has got to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents, and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law," Healey said in comments on MSNBC this week, after Trump won the presidential election. When MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell asked Healey if the Massachusetts State Police would be enlisted in helping realize the deportation efforts, Healey said: "No.
Absolutely not." Healey said state officials here and across the country may have to use additional resources to keep their residents from harm, including their regulatory authority, executive powers, and state legislation. In this, our governor is following the lead of other local elected officials who fought these battles alongside of her when she was the state's attorney general during the first time around.
Healey's defiant tone echoed that of then-Mayor Martin J. Walsh eight years ago after Trump had begun his first term as president. Walsh made national news by declaring he would shelter undocumented immigrants in Boston City Hall as a last resort, though that never happened.
Boston was one of multiple municipalities that passed or strengthened laws that restrict local law enforcement from working with federal immigration enforcement. Other "sanctuary city" communities in the Boston area include Chelsea, Somerville, and Cambridge. In 2017, the state's highest court upheld those laws, stating that court officers should not hold someone solely on the basis of a federal immigration detainer request.
The Supreme Judicial Court's ruling was seen as the first by a state high court to forbid local authorities from enforcing federal immigration laws, and it's what State Police cited this week in responding to the new questions over enforcement. Expect to see more of this defiance in blue..
. Charles P. Pierce.
