Just the fax: Boston Police suggest ICE detainer discrepancy might be over faxes - The Boston Globe

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

71% : "Given that the Boston Police Department does not have authority to continue to detain an individual eligible for release, does not have a role in enforcing immigration laws and cannot use department resources for immigration enforcement purposes, the Boston Police Department does not enforce civil immigration laws," she said in a statement.
49% : A 2017 state Supreme Judicial Court decision bars local and state authorities from honoring detainer requests, which are informal communications from ICE asking a police department, court, or sheriff's office to continue to hold someone who they would otherwise release.
47% : After ICE questioned the city's tally of ignored detainer requests, a Boston Police spokesperson, acknowledging the difference in numbers, maintained the department only had evidence of 15 ICE detainer requests that it had received in 2024, all via fax, but "acknowledges that (the Department of Homeland Security) may have different information.
47% : "In January 2023, BPD asked that ICE stop sending detainer requests solely via fax to district stations, and also send them to a central email address," BPD spokesperson Mariellen Burns wrote in a statement after ICE made its numbers public.
47% : In its own statement in the back-and-forth exchange, ICE hammered the rules that prevent collaboration between immigration and local authorities, saying they can allow dangerous criminals to go free.
47% : "The decision not to cooperate with ICE jeopardizes public safety and national security by thwarting ICE custody in a safe and secure environment.
41% : "To date, ICE has not used the email address.
40% : Further, Boston has approved an ordinance known as the "Trust Act," and it directly bars Boston Police from working on federal immigration enforcement, though police can work with ICE if criminal acts are involved.
37% : Deep-blue Boston and Massachusetts have become flash points of the issue nationally, given their rules that prevent police and other authorities from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.
37% : "ICE, which didn't respond Friday to a question about faxing and emailing, said earlier in the week that its Enforcement and Removal Operations wing "issued each of the 198 detainers after the Boston Police Department arrested individuals on criminal charges who ICE had probable cause to believe were removable non-citizens.
37% : "The federal department said the suspected noncitizens "were arrested for egregious criminal activity," including attempted murder, drug trafficking, gun charge, assault and battery on a police officer, and indecent assault and battery on a child.

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