Boston MA USA – circa march 2020 – Boston City Hall
The Boston Trust Act ordinance of 2014 seeks to limit cooperation by the Boston Police Department with U.S. federal immigration authorities. The Boston City Council approved the original version in August 2014. The ordinance was amended in December 2019.
The 2019 version of the Boston Trust Act ordinance states: “A law enforcement officer shall not detain an individual solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer request or an ICE administrative warrant after the individual is eligible for release from custody, unless ICE has a criminal warrant, issued by a judicial officer, for the individual.” The quoted sentence refers to Boston police officers. “ICE” stands for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The ordinance also says that Boston law enforcement officers and other city employees “shall not … Transfer an individual to immigration authorities unless authorized by a judicial warrant or other judicial order.”
A civil detainer request issued by federal immigration authorities asks local police or other local or state authorities to help federal immigration officials know when they plan to release noncitizens who have been arrested or convicted of committing a crime that would put them to the front of the list to get deported, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement web site. It also asks local or state authorities to hold the noncitizen for up to 48 hours, to allow federal immigration officers to arrest the noncitizen at the jail.
The Boston ordinance allows Boston police to investigate, enforce, detain “upon reasonable suspicion,” and arrest “for a criminal violation of” certain federal statutes.
One of them is United States Code, Title 8, Section 1326(a), which states that any alien (the federal term for a non-citizen of the United States) who is found in the United States after being deported is liable to a fine or imprisonment of up to two years.
The Boston Trust Act ordinance acknowledges the possibility of enhanced penalties under Section 1326(b)(2) of Title 8, which refers to aliens deported because of an “aggravated felony,” which federal law elsewhere (United States Code, Section 8, Section 1101(a)(43)) defines as crimes for which a person convicted receives a prison sentence of one year or longer, including murder, rape, sexual abuse of a minor, human trafficking, illicit trafficking in drugs or explosive materials, money laundering more than $10,000, owning a prostitution business, violating federal firearms laws, theft, and burglary.
The Boston Trust Act ordinance also allows Boston police and other city employees to enforce United States Code, Title 18, Section 922(d)(5), which makes it illegal to sell firearms to someone “who is illegally or unlawfully in the United States.”
The Boston Trust Act ordinance says it doesn’t prevent city police and other city employees with complying with another federal statute, United States Code, Title 8, Section 1373, which prohibits restricting federal immigration authorities from sending or receiving information to other government entities information “regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual.”
The city ordinance also acknowledges another similar federal statute (United States Code, Title 8, Section 1644), which says “no State or local government entity may be prohibited, or in any way restricted, from sending to or receiving from” federal immigration authorities “information regarding the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of an alien in the United States.”
The Boston Trust Act ordinance requires the Boston police commissioner to provide a report to the Boston City Council each year on detainer requests to Boston police from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Here’s a breakdown of those reports for the past three years, with links to each report:
You can read the entire Boston Trust Act ordinance (as amended in 2019) here.
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Boston MA USA – circa march 2020 – Boston City Hall 
