By Adam Bass
masslive.com
WORCESTER, Mass. — The City of Worcester will not allow its police department to partner with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the city council declared on Tuesday.
The Worcester City Council voted 8-2 on a resolution opposing any pursuit or consideration of a 287(g) agreement between the city and ICE.
A 287(g) agreement gives local law enforcement the ability to perform limited immigration enforcement, according to ICE’s website. The only department in Massachusetts with a 287(g) agreement is the state’s Department of Corrections, which signed the agreement in 2020, according to a list on the website.
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Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty, Vice Chairman and Councilor-at-Large Khrystian King, Councilor-at-Large Kathleen Toomey, District 1 Councilor Jenny Pacillo, District 2 Councilor Candy Mero-Carlson, District 3 Councilor George Russell, District 4 Councilor Luis Ojeda and District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj all voted in favor of the resolution. Councilors-at-Large Morris Bergman and Donna Colorio voted against the resolution.
King put forward the resolution opposing any partnership between Worcester and ICE. He informed the council and members of the public that, based on his conversations with City Manager Eric D. Batista, it is his inclination that the city will not consider entering the agreement.
“While this isn’t certainly under consideration at this time, I’ve introduced a resolution to make our position clear,” King said. “Worcester is not going down that path.”
Mayor Joseph Petty also spoke in favor of the resolution, describing it as a message of support to the city’s immigrant community.
“We care about you,” Petty said. “You are part of this community.”
District 5 Councilor Etel Haxhiaj also expressed support, saying it’s the “bare minimum” that Worcester can do.
“We will stand firm like Mayor (Michelle) Wu did in Boston and say: get the hell out of our city,” Haxhiaj said. “You will not harm one more resident in our city.”
Haxhiaj was present at an ICE operation on May 8 that took place on Eureka Street.
She, along with many other bystanders, confronted agents as they arrested Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, a Brazilian mother of three. Ferreira-De Oliveira’s arrest sparked anger among Worcester residents, who have protested both ICE and the Worcester Police Department, accusing the latter of collaborating with ICE. Officers were present on Eureka Street after 11 a.m. and told the bystanders they were conducting an unlawful assembly.
Haxhiaj is facing two criminal charges that stem from an interaction between her and a police officer who tried to move her away from a vehicle the mother was placed in by ICE.
Ferreira-De Oliveira was granted asylum on Tuesday by an immigration judge in Chelmsford.
Bergman, who voted against the resolution, called a scenario of a partnership between Worcester and ICE “hypothetical”.
“I am not going to vote on a hypothetical or an imaginary premise,” Bergman said. “The fact is there’s nothing to oppose because nothing has happened yet.”
On May 16, eight days after the Eureka Street operation, Batista released an executive order stating that city resources will not be used for immigration enforcement. The order reads that Worcester Police Officers will not perform the duties of ICE agents and that municipal employees will not be involved in civil immigration enforcement.
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