LYNN — Throughout the week, Lynn residents on Facebook posted multiple clips of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the city.
These clips included ICE agents on Western Avenue, Walnut Street and on Friday they were seen on Nahant Street.
In recent days, there have been multiple viral clips of ICE agents detaining people throughout Massachusetts, most notably a detainment in Worcester where a crowd attempted to stop ICE. In response, a large protest against ICE occurred in the city.
With the surge of ICE activity in Massachusetts, Mayor Jared C. Nicholson has once again put out a statement, with signatures from city councilors, acknowledging the organization’s presence.
“Residents should be aware of an escalation of ICE activity in Lynn and throughout the Commonwealth, including an increase in ‘collateral’ detentions. Meaning, if ICE is seeking a specific individual, others run the risk of also being detained,” Nicholson said.
He continued that though the current administration has stated that it is targeting violent criminals, there has been a shift in the approach to detaining people whom they suspect do not have status when they encounter them in the course of their operations to identify a target.
“We have expressed to ICE our opposition to this practice,” Nicholson said. “Given limited resources, especially if there exists the level of criminality that the federal government claims, we do not believe that these collateral detentions are what would best accomplish our public safety goals.
“Not only because the resources would be better spent on higher public safety priorities, but also due to the unrest and fear it creates in our community. We also believe the collateral detentions are not fair to our residents and violate the spirit of our country’s proud tradition of due process.”
He continued that, despite this, establishing and enforcing immigration is the responsibility of the federal government.
“While we are unable to restrict or control the federal government’s enforcement activities, we do want to communicate our support for our immigrant neighbors and serious concern with the impact that these activities are having in our city,” he said.
