Massachusetts federal agents have decided to stop the practice of placing undocumented immigrants under arrest while they visit government offices to try and gain legal status, an immigration official told a federal judge on Tuesday. The decision is a reversal in the policies practiced by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after a Boston federal judge subjected them to sharp questioning on the practice after the American Civil Liberties Union began a legal challenge.
The acting director of the ICE field office in Boston, Thomas Brophy, informed US District Court Judge, Mark L. Wolf, in a tense Tuesday hearing that he had already ordered the end of the arrests on 16 February. This came as a result of hearing about undocumented immigrants attempting to gain legal status in the US following marriages to legal citizens being arrested as they attended scheduled appointments with US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Brophy told the judge that he ordered his officers to put their focus on public safety and no longer carry out such arrests unless there was a public safety or national security threat. He added that his predecessor had implemented the practice, which he altered when he assumed the job in February.
A spokesman for ICE declined to comment on whether the policy change applies nationwide or only in Massachusetts. The agency was publicly defending the practice as a valid strategy to ensure the safety of officers during arrests in March.