Anoth­er major blue city dou­bles down on vow to obstruct Trump’s mass depor­ta­tions plan

The Boston City Coun­cil unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed this week to dou­ble down on a mea­sure designed to obstruct Pres­i­dent-elect Trump’s plans for mass depor­ta­tions.

Accord­ing to the Boston Her­ald, Boston coun­cil mem­ber Gabriela Colet­ta said the mea­sure is an impor­tant step “as we brace for [the] impact” of a sec­ond Trump pres­i­den­cy.

Titled the “Trust Act,” the law was first passed in 2014 and was amend­ed dur­ing Trump’s first term in 2019.

It seeks to pro­tect immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties from “unjust enforce­ment actions” and restricts Boston police’s abil­i­ty to coop­er­ate with ICE and bans police from keep­ing migrants in cus­tody for pos­si­ble depor­ta­tion unless there is a crim­i­nal war­rant.

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The res­o­lu­tion adopt­ed by the coun­cil states that “pro­pos­als for mass depor­ta­tions rep­re­sent a direct attack on Boston’s immi­grant fam­i­lies, and threat­en to tear com­mu­ni­ties apart.”

“In the face of chang­ing fed­er­al lead­er­ship, the City of Boston must reaf­firm our sup­port for the Boston Trust Act to pro­tect our immi­grant res­i­dents,” the res­o­lu­tion goes on. “The City of Boston shall con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor and respond to fed­er­al immi­gra­tion poli­cies that may impact its res­i­dents, reaf­firm­ing its com­mit­ment to pro­tect immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties from unjust enforce­ment actions and to uphold the Trust Act, rec­og­niz­ing that pro­tect­ing the rights and dig­ni­ty of all res­i­dents, regard­less of immi­gra­tion sta­tus, is essen­tial for a safe and wel­com­ing city for all.”

Accord­ing to the Boston Globe, all 13 coun­cil mem­bers vot­ed to reaf­firm the Trust Act on Wednes­day.

Per the Boston Globe, Coun­cil Pres­i­dent Ruthzee Loui­je­une said that “as the nation­al cli­mate grows increas­ing­ly hos­tile towards immi­grant com­mu­ni­ties, we must reaf­firm who we are as a city.”

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“As a city built on the strength of its diverse com­mu­ni­ties,” she went on, “Boston remains stead­fast in its com­mit­ment to pro­tect­ing the rights [and] dig­ni­ty of all its res­i­dents, regard­less of sta­tus.”

Boston May­or Michelle Wu, a Demo­c­rat, has also vowed the city would not coop­er­ate with Trump and his incom­ing bor­der czar Tom Homan’s plans for mass depor­ta­tions.  

“The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is respon­si­ble for a cer­tain set of actions, and cities, no indi­vid­ual city, can reverse or over­ride some parts of that,” Wu said dur­ing a local news inter­view. “But what we can do is make sure that we are doing our part to pro­tect our res­i­dents in every pos­si­ble way, that we are not coop­er­at­ing with those efforts that actu­al­ly threat­en the safe­ty of every­one by caus­ing wide­spread fear and hav­ing large-scale eco­nom­ic impact.”

This comes after the Boston area has seen sev­er­al ICE arrests of ille­gal immi­grants who have been charged with crimes, includ­ing child sex offens­es, released back onto the streets. 

ICE announced in Novem­ber that it appre­hend­ed a Colom­bian ille­gal immi­grant, who had been arrest­ed on charges of entic­ing a child under 16, dis­tri­b­u­tion of obscene mat­ter, and las­civ­i­ous pos­ing and exhibit­ing a child in the nude. ICE had filed a detain­er against him, but it was ignored, accord­ing to the agency.

Mass­a­chu­setts Gov. Mau­ra Healey has sim­i­lar­ly said she is pre­pared to use “every tool in the tool­box” to pro­tect res­i­dents, vow­ing that state police would “absolute­ly not” assist Trump in the mass depor­ta­tions oper­a­tion.

Sev­er­al oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­ers have also pledged resis­tance to Trump’s depor­ta­tion plans, includ­ing Cal­i­for­nia Gov. Gavin New­som and Den­ver May­or Mike John­ston.

John­ston got into a spat with Homan after he vowed to have Den­ver police phys­i­cal­ly block ICE offi­cials from car­ry­ing out depor­ta­tions and pre­dict­ed a “Tianan­men Square moment.”

In response, Homan has warned resisters to “get the hell out of the way” and cau­tioned he is “not afraid” to jail those who ille­gal­ly obstruct ICE enforce­ment.