The West Fairmount Hill Community Group (WFHCG) met last week in a virtual format to talk about what residents can do about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the neighborhood.

Tim Smith came out from the Liberty Union Community Esperanza [Spanish for hope] (LUCE) Massachusetts network to discuss what residents can do if they suspect ICE is operating in the neighborhood.

First, he said LUCE is a network of verifiers and is set up to send observers to suspected ICE activity in order to document who is taken for follow-up action in court later. The presumption here is that detainees are being lost in the system, and it becomes difficult or impossible for their families or attorneys to find them after they are taken – https://tinyurl.com/yr7x9kvr

LUCE Hyde Park mini-hub organizer Tim Smith said they have been working in the neighborhood, mainly out of the Roslindale Hub, and have been going door-to-door in areas to educate residents of their rights and what they can do if they suspect operations are going on in the area. For more information, go to https://www.lucemass.org and/or call the hotline at 617-370-5023.

“I started getting involved in March and over the summer we started to develop a mini-hub here in Hyde Park,” he said. “People felt like we weren’t organized enough to have our own stand-alone hub, so we’re sort of latched onto Roslindale right now.”

Smith said they would have a stand-alone hub in the future once they get more boots on the ground. He added they’ve been going to hotspot areas, door-to-door, to distribute educational material and asked that residents call the LUCE hotline whenever they feel it necessary.

“We have found just knocking on doors there are a lot of frightened and vulnerable people,” he said. “Since probably September we’d go knock on doors and talk with people and find out what they’ve heard, but to also let them know they have neighbors looking out for them.”

Smith added they’ve also been sharing ‘Know Your Rights’ pamphlets so that residents can be educated as to what can be done when ICE comes to your door.

“You don’t have to open the door, you don’t have to answer questions,” he said. “Up until recently, they couldn’t enter your house without a (judicial) warrant, but I think now all bets are off on that. I get really angry about this stuff. I don’t understand it, and it’s a strange time for all of us.”

Eddie Conley represented District 5 City Councilor Enrique Pepén’s office and also discussed LUCE. He echoed Smith’s sentiments about contacting LUCE.

“If you think you’re seeing ICE in your area, or you want to get involved in monitoring them in Hyde Park, I’d highly recommend getting in touch with the LUCE network,” he said.

Office of Neighborhood Services Zoe Petty also recommended calling the Boston Police Department (BPD).

“I think there is a lot of coordination between the Mayor’s Office and the police department and a lot of city departments in how the city won’t be working with ICE and won’t be providing information about our residents to ICE,” she said. “But if there is any feedback to report back to the office, let me know.”

Advertisement

BPD District E-18 Captain Joseph Boyle said his officers will do what they can within their jurisdictional limits to keep the peace.

“If we’re called with 911, number one, we show up and we keep the peace and will enforce Massachusetts laws if necessary,” he said. “If people have concerns, we will show up.”

Petty added that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has stepped onto the national stage on the ICE issue in an attempt to stem the tide before it gets to Boston.

“The Mayor did release a statement around the most recent ICE shooting and has called for the end of this seeming occupation of Minneapolis and most of Minnesota at this point,” she said, adding that Boston and many local municipalities have signed onto a lawsuit to end ICE activity in Minnesota. “And there have been sightings in Boston; just a couple of weeks ago there were sightings in Brighton, which I think was the bigger activity we were seeing. But there are different organizations on the ground working to help each other.”

ICE has been ramping up activity in nearby Maine these last couple of weeks.

WFHCG Chair Marcia Kimm-Jackson said she has heard of many organizing efforts involving boycotts and other methods to slow or stop ICE in different parts of the country.

“There are so many efforts around this,” she said. “We talk about boycotts all the time, but they do work. Someone said to me that a lot of the vehicles that these agents rent are from Enterprise Rental Cars. So you can let Enterprise Rental know – and this is hearsay – but if you can substantiate that you can choose how you respond to that. But there are all kinds of ways we can respond.”

While there is no confirmed reporting from Enterprise, reporting going back as far as October of last year shows that it has been under scrutiny for apparently renting to ICE officers and administrators, first from the Sisters of Social Services – https://tinyurl.com/5cbcp6ee – and then more recently Minnesotans have been mass renting vehicles and then canceling their rentals in a form of protest – https://tinyurl.com/5cbcp6ee

Hilton and Target were also the subject of consumer pressure regarding working with ICE, though Hilton did cancel reservations early last month due to pressure – https://tinyurl.com/bdft52br

Smith said there have been sightings of ICE in the neighborhood, particularly at the Stop & Shop plaza on American Legion Highway.