Mayor Walsh Says Boston Won't Comply With Orders To Detain Immigrants
Mayor Marty Walsh says local law enforcement will refuse to comply if the federal government requests bed space for short-term detention of immigrant detainees.
We dont have that ability here, in Boston, and thats not our job, Walsh said during an interview with Boston Public Radio Friday. Our job, as a police department, is not to be enforcement officials for the federal government.
In the latest chapter of President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown, the Boston office of U.S. Customs and Border Protection asked local police departments to create spaces to detain non-citizens awaiting deportation, while immigrants wait for flights out of the United States. Beyond political motivations, Walsh said Boston just couldnt handle the logistics.
We dont have the space, he said. We basically have temporary holdings for when we bring people in, they go to court and then they go on to either the house of corrections or they go on to the jail, or they go on to the state system.
Read more: http://news.wgbh.org/2017/03/03/boston-public-radio-podcast/mayor-walsh-says-boston-wont-comply-orders-detain-immigrants