Newton’s Public Safety and Transportation Committee met Wednesday to review response options to possible Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation within Newton, with many citizens and councilors urging the city to increase citizens’ protections against federal immigration enforcement.
The meeting comes in response to growing concerns about ICE’s immigration enforcement around the country.
Ward 1 City Councilor Maria Greenberg emphasized that many residents within Newton are experiencing anxiety and uncertainty as they watch federal enforcement actions unfold.
“Over the past several months, we have all witnessed reports of overly aggressive and reckless tactics used by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency,” Greenberg said. “These actions have spread fear, mistrust, and confusion in our communities across the country.”
Newton City Solicitor, Alissa Giuliani, explained Newton’s 2017 “Welcoming City” ordinance to the committee, which limits local police and city employees from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
“The ordinance reaffirms the city’s commitment to making all residents, workers, and visitors safe within the city, regardless of their immigration status,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani highlighted that Newton has prohibitions in place that don’t require cooperation with federal authorities on immigration matters, a fact that Police Chief Timothy Cohoon elaborated on.
“We don’t ask about immigration status in any interaction with any resident, and we do that for a reason,” Cohoon said. “We want to make sure people are comfortable coming to us, and that’s vitally important, and that’s part of what the Welcoming City ordinance reaffirms.”
Greenberg explained that many councilors and residents agree that more can be done for the protection and reassurance of residents from ICE.
Specifically, Greenberg called for guidance and training for frontline workers and “Know Your Rights” cards for the public.
City Chief Operating Officer Josh Morse explained that he doesn’t want citizens to think that the city is taking the issue lightly, emphasizing that work has and will continue to be done to reassure Newton citizens.
“I don’t want to leave anybody with the impression that because the city hasn’t issued a two-pager or one-pager about what to do that we haven’t been taking this extremely seriously, and we haven’t been talking to people internally about what to do,” Morse said.
Outside of the “Welcoming City” ordinance, Newton has taken multiple measures to protect its citizens from ICE, including Newton Mayor Marc Laredo signing an executive order to limit Newton’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Even with the assurance that the city is taking things seriously, citizens and councilors remain concerned that the city could be doing more, explained Ward 6 Councilor-at-Large Sean Roche.
“Right now, terrorism is a word that’s being used, and it’s a justification being used much more broadly than it would have been used when the Welcoming City ordinance was enacted,” Roche said. “We need to maybe come back and revisit that so that not every undocumented person is considered a terrorist threat.”
Morse emphasized that the city must remain dynamic by enacting protections against federal immigration enforcement, continuing to work on reviewing and adapting Newton’s protections for its citizens.
“It’s important that we remain dynamic, certainly from the administrator’s perspective, when faced with new information,” Morse said. “We are ready to pivot and respond accordingly, not only with what we say, but with what we write and what we have written.”
