The Amherst Town Council unanimously adopted a resolution virtually on Monday that urges state and local officials to prosecute federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents if they violate Massachusetts criminal laws. Of the councilors who voted, the vote was unanimous with 9 councilors in support. Two councilors abstained and two were absent from the vote.
The resolution calls for Massachusetts' attorney general and the state's district attorneys to open criminal investigations into unlawful actions by federal immigration agents and cease 287(g) agreements, which allow local police to enforce certain aspects of federal immigration law.
Amherst Town Councilor Jill Brevik said she believes this is the first municipal resolution passed to this effect in the country.
"Silence is complicity,” Brevik said. “It's our job to make sure that we are saying these things loudly as a form of protection, to say if ICE agents commit crimes like we've seen them commit across the nation and again here in Massachusetts, that they will be prosecuted."
While resolutions are non-binding and reflect a city or town’s formal statement of intent, Brevik said her and other councilors will follow-up with state leaders to ensure their resolution gets the recognition it deserves.
“Past inaction and past silence has allowed us to get to this point or to create an environment that has enabled ICE agents to commit these crimes and human rights abuses. I think that's part of why I'm so motivated to act loudly in this way," she said. "I think that inaction in the face of things like rampant police killings of unarmed people of color, with no real significant reduction in police force or funding, no demilitarization of our police force and not even of our university police force here. Like, we haven't seen a lot of action on that front.”
She also wants to work with other cities and towns in western Mass and across the state to help create similar resolutions.
Last month, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan publicly condemned the actions of federal ICE agents and said his office would investigate and prosecute federal agents who violated the law in Hampshire and Franklin counties.
