Lawyers from the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union will question the new director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston field office about the controversial policy of targeting undocumented immigrants for arrest outside government offices where they have appointments, a practice she reinstated last month.
Rebecca Adducci took over as the Boston Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office’s interim director on 7 June and immediately reversed the directive given by her predecessor, according to a federal court affidavit. The deposition is set for 26 July, court documents have revealed. The court filing was made on 23 July, when lawyers noted that documentation on ICE Boston Field Office policies and general practices in 2018 about the arrest, detention, and deportation of undocumented immigrants arriving at CIS offices for interviews had not yet been produced by the government when the deadline was 18 July.
The Department of Justice handed over 2,850 pages of heavily redacted records on 19 and 20 of July, but court documents show they lacked vital information.
At least seven undocumented immigrants were arrested in Rhode Island and Massachusetts in January during or after scheduled appointments with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. When Thomas Brophy took over as the acting director of the Boston field office of ICE, in February, he discontinued the policy, but Adducci says she intends to follow the executive order on immigration issued by President Donald Trump.