For six days in mid-March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement says over 300 people were arrested across Massachusetts, following a series of raids targeting what they deemed “egregious criminal alien offenders.” Within days, the Trump administration noted some of that figure included “collateral” arrests. An immigration attorney and local advocates say several men in Springfield were among them.
From March 18 to March 23, ICE officials say their personnel and “federal law enforcement partners” nabbed around 370 people across the Massachusetts.
Their targets included individuals involved in “transnational organized crime” and gangs, according to a press release. When all said and done, 205 of the arrested were said to have “significant criminal convictions or charges.”
At least six of the arrested were said to be “foreign fugitives” facing murder, drug trafficking or money laundering charges or convictions, ICE stated.
But, what of the other 165? And what constitutes “significant?”
Days after the operation, President Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said the sweep included a number of “collaterals,” according to WBZ News. While it’s not clear exactly how many of the arrested fit that description, one Boston attorney says a group of men in Springfield were among them – and remain detained.
“These are workers, these are members of their communities, they’re family men - they're no risk to anybody, and it's a complete waste of resources to take them into custody because we're certain that they have a strong chance of bond before an immigration judge next week, when those cases will be heard,” said Matt Cameron, managing partner of Cameron Micheroni & Silvia.
As reported in the Greenfield Recorder, four men said to have worked area farms - namely Red Fire Farm in Granby and Montague - were arrested in Springfield on March 20.
A GoFundMe was set up soon after to support the group’s family. Those detained were said to be the “primary earners” of the household, including two men who were arrested at the home and another two who had left for work, according to the fundraiser’s organizer.
Cameron’s representing three of them. Out of respect for their privacy, he only described the group as being of Central American descent while also having been in Massachusetts for at least five years, with some being part of the community longer than that.
He adds that the case of the fourth man arrested is more complicated – but also indicative of an intensified crackdown on immigrants by the DOJ.
“The Department of Justice is under a mandate right now from Attorney General Pam Bondi to highly-prioritize minor immigration federal offenses, so, just to be clear, the three we've been talking about are not facing any criminal charges - those are civil immigration violations that have put them into deportation proceedings,” Cameron explained. “But the other one is typical of what DOJ is doing right now in finding every possible criminal violation they can, and that includes things like illegal entry and illegal re-entry to the United States, which are both fairly minor federal criminal charges, and they certainly don't suggest any kind of danger to the community or violence or anything.”
“So, I'd suggest this is also a good example of the way that DOJ is wasting resources,” he added.
Reached for comment by WAMC, Red Fire Farm declined to speak on the matter.
With his district including Granby and some of Springfield, Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester State Senator Jake Oliveira tells WAMC raids like the one in Springfield need to stop.
He accuses federal authorities of using “Gestapo-like tactics” – the Springfield raid was said to have involved multiple vehicles crowding the family’s neighborhood. Oliveira says that sends a cruel message to immigrant families.
“We need to call out all the actions by this administration, especially in these gross abuses of federal authorities coming in and picking up vulnerable individuals and families, and the signal that it sends to them and to their children, who are in our schools - there are children not going to school now because their parents are afraid that they might not return and could get picked up,” he said. “That's un-American, that shouldn't be in any place in our society.”
Claire Morenon of Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, or CISA, a non-profit that runs programming to support hundreds of local farmers, says she and others are hearing stories of farmworkers being too scared to come to work and others carrying their passports with them in farm fields in case ICE shows up.
While she hasn’t heard of widespread arrests happening at local farms, she adds a widespread culture of fear is setting in among documented and undocumented immigrants alike – all in an industry where they are already working hard hours for what’s often little pay.
“We have a situation where farm labor is undervalued in our country - it's underpaid, it's physically demanding, it can be dangerous, and at the same time, we have an immigration system that doesn't offer sufficient pathways to work authorization and legal residency,” she told WAMC. “And so, farm owners … and farm workers are caught up in this system, and neither of those two groups really have the power to change it on their own. I would say that so many of the people who we know are working on farms locally are geared to work: they're here to be able to support their families and build better lives for themselves, exactly as so many American born citizens, grandparents and great grandparents were, and they are an essential piece of the fabric of not just our farm labor workforce, but also our communities.”
WAMC has reached out to ICE for comment, as well as to Homeland Security and the DEA.
