Federal immigration enforcement officers have arrested two illegal criminals over the past two weeks in a pair of Bay State municipalities racing to reaffirm their commitments as sanctuary cities.
Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston on Nov. 12 arrested a Salvadoran national, a confirmed MS-13 gang member, convicted of assault after local authorities in Northampton refused to turn him over to federal immigration enforcement, ICE reported earlier this week.
That arrest unfolded a week before officers with ERO Boston gained custody of a Brazilian citizen charged with drug trafficking crimes in his home country, on Tuesday in Somerville, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a release.
Northampton officials have already approved continuing their support as a sanctuary city in the wake of President-elect Trump’s victory. The Somerville City Council tabled a vote on its reaffirmation last week but is expected to OK it by the end of the month.
As sanctuary cities, Northampton and Somerville, among a handful of other Bay State municipalities that have enacted the status, refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Officials and police in both migrant hot spots are barred from inquiring about or collecting information regarding citizenship or immigration status and from detaining a person solely on the belief that they may be here unlawfully.
“Sanctuary policies make these communities magnets for foreign criminals where the police don’t even know who they may be pulling over,” Jessica Vaughan, director of policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Herald on Friday.
“They can hide in plain sight,” Vaughan said. “Some may have red alerts from Interpol out on them and the local police will not hold them allowing them to skip out” on prosecution,
Northampton police arrested Jose Luis Castro Jovel earlier this year, on Jan. 26, for alleged assault and battery of a family or household member, with ERO Boston lodging a detainer against him with Northampton District Court, according to ICE.
The detainer – a request that local or state law enforcement “maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released” – followed Castro to Hampden County Correction Center, where he was held following arraignment.
ICE, however, accuses the Northampton District Court of releasing Castro on Feb. 12 without notifying federal immigration enforcement at ERO Boston. The office’s fugitive operations team arrested Castro last Tuesday on a public roadway in the Hampshire County city.
Castro is said to have entered the country on an “unknown date … without being inspected,” with a federal immigration judge ordering his removal in March 2023, but he stayed in the U.S.
The illegal criminal is a confirmed member of MS-13, short for the Mara Salvatrucha, a gang that formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s to protect Salvadoran immigrants who escaped a civil war in their home country from other gangs
MS-13 has grown into a “well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives,” according to the Department of Justice.
“ERO Boston is committed to keeping our communities safe, and we do that in partnership with local law enforcement,” ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde said in a release. “But the bottom line is that immigration detainers are public safety tools. We use them to keep potentially dangerous noncitizens off our streets, and when officials don’t honor them, it puts our friends, families and neighbors at risk.”
In a letter led by Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, residents learned Monday that officials became aware of ICE’s pursuit of Castro two days after his arrest.
“The enforcement of federal immigration laws is outside the authority of local law enforcement,” the letter states, “and Northampton has a long-standing policy of non-cooperation with such actions to the extent permissible by law.”
Sciarra also confirmed in the letter that Northampton had reaffirmed its commitment as a sanctuary city.
“We affirm that Northampton is, and will remain, a community where all are treated with dignity and humanity,” the letter reads. “Our commitment to these values is unwavering. We remain united in our belief that inclusion and equity are the cornerstones of a just and vibrant community.”
In Somerville, officers with ERO Boston arrested a 38-year-old Brazilian citizen charged with drug trafficking crimes in his home country on Tuesday. Authorities did not release the noncitizen’s name “in accordance with privacy restrictions.”
The criminal entered the country near El Paso, Texas in June 2022, “without authorization from an immigration official.” A federal judge ordered his removal last January before the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed an appeal from the noncitizen and another judge issued a final removal order in June.
A panicked Somerville City Council has started strategizing how to sidestep Trump’s mass deportation vow. A vote on its sanctuary reaffirmation could come early next week, with a meeting scheduled for Tuesday.
Elon Musk ripped Massachusetts sanctuary policies on Wednesday, minutes before Natick considered committing to the status. Musk was responding to the arrests of two illegal immigrants on charges of child rape and taken in an unlawfully present Brazilian convicted of child rape in his home country.
“Why are ‘sanctuary’ cities protecting child rapists? Unconscionable,” Musk posted on his social media platform, X. “Any politician who does so should be recalled immediately.”
Joe Dwinell contributed
