In the past year, the federal Immigration and Custom Enforcement Service (ICE), has had a presence in Acton, arresting, among others, people working at Sorrento’s Pizza, Dunkin’ on Main St., and residents of apartment complexes on Davis Road and Great Road.
In a recent interview, Acton Select Board Member Alissa Nicol said ICE targets by type of workplace such as restaurants and landscaping firms. She said they also stake out district courts to nab criminal suspects attending their court appearances, and will often take the detainees out of state in order to find more sympathetic judges, especially in states along the southern border. The arrests, according to Nicol, can have a chilling effect on local gatherings, for which she provided one example: A local clothing store in 2024 sold one hundred outfits to customers preparing for an annual ethnic festival and this year, only two, as people felt safer staying home.
Rights
What are Acton’s policies on enforcement? The Select Board’s immigration policy published October 30, 2017, is available at the Town website. It clarifies that the town does not ask anyone for their immigration status, and will not expend town resources to assist in federal detainers. But it will obey the orders of a judicial warrant, subpoena, or detainer. In a 2017 court case, Lunn vs. the Commonwealth, the Supreme Judicial Court, citing the Massachusetts Constitution, ruled that Massachusetts court officers currently have no power to arrest someone for a civil immigration detainer (for example, someone overstaying their visa), and deferred that authority to the legislature.
Resources
There are also multiple ICE-watching groups, such as the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Mass., and the Refugee and Immigrant Assistance Center, or RIAC. On May 21, 2025, in Acton, and Nov. 6, 2025, in Shirley, State Representative Dan Sena held seminars on immigration. A video recording of the May 21 forum is available at Acton TV.
During the government shutdown, SNAP-eligible families, such as lawful permanent residents or certain Cuban and Haitian migrants, may have been hit with a financial double whammy if their breadwinner had been detained.
There are neighbor-to-neighbor groups such as LUCE (see WBUR Oct. 6 article), the Mass Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), CASA in Framingham, and GoFundMe for individual families. And there’s the Acton Food Pantry at 235 Summer Road in Boxborough, and Open Table at 33 Main Street in Maynard.
Looking ahead
The Mass. League of Women Voters (LWV) has proposed three bills for the legislature: The Safe Communities Act (H2580/S1681); Dignity not Deportations (H1588/S1122), and the Immigrant Legal Defense Fund (H1954/S1127). The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security will be holding a public hearing on the Safe Communities Act at the State House on Wednesday, November 25.
Closer to home, a Select Board member told the Acton Exchange that the Select Board’s 2017 Immigration Policy is being reviewed. And anti-ICE rallies continue, with weekly standouts on Wednesdays and Saturdays at ICE’s Burlington Field Office, and on Saturdays in Framingham.
James Conboy writes for the Acton Exchange on everything from softball to immigration. He wishes to thank Select Board Members Alissa Nicol and Dean Charter for providing him information for this article.
