Bristol County for Correctional Justice, the NAACP New Bedford Branch, and the ACLU of Massachusetts jointly call upon the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation and the chairs of the House and Senate Judiciary committees to take steps to support the termination of DHS’s 287(g) contract and IGSA with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office.
The letter calls for the immediate termination of all immigration-related contracts between the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office (“BCSO”) and the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”). These contracts include an Intergovernmental Service Agreement (“IGSA”) to house federal civil immigration detainees in BCSO facilities, as well as a 287(g) agreement, through which BCSO wastefully deploys state resources to do ICE’s work without any compensation from the federal government.
In December 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) found that BCSO committed egregious violations of immigration detainees’ civil rights and requested that these contracts be terminated. And, since at present, BCSO’s immigration detention facilities are substantially depopulated, there is no practical justification for keeping these contracts in effect.
A PDF of the full letter can be found here.
