Public details on local ICE activity practically absent 

Despite numerous public sightings in Waltham of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action, both confirmed and unconfirmed, ICE provides little to no information to the public about the investigations and detainments here in the city.

A central question following ICE activity: What information does ICE report to the public?

According to a press release from the agency, agents made 1,461 arrests in Massachusetts in the month of May as a part of Operation Patriot, a large-scale immigration enforcement operation underway in Massachusetts.

However, ICE has not responded to repeated inquiries for information about the number of detainments it has made in Waltham and on arrests made by the agency in the city.  

A spokesperson for the Waltham Police Department said it is unlikely that ICE would reach out to the department with information on anyone who has been detained in Waltham.

However, he said ICE and the Police Department both have access to the National Crime Information Center, a nationwide database managed by the FBI that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies use to track criminal justice information.

So if Waltham officers run someone’s information through the database, they could see if ICE had placed a federal warrant or “ICE detainer” on the individual. An ICE detainer is a request to other law enforcement agencies to hold an individual for 48 hours so that ICE can retrieve and detain the individual. 

The spokesperson also said that the Waltham Police Department does not act on these detainers.

Additionally, the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office is the only law enforcement agency in the state that has a contract with ICE for holding detainees.

According to a 2024 report from its Office of Professional Responsibility, the office has been holding ICE detainees at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility since 1994.

But as reported in The Concord Bridge, space at the Plymouth facility is finite. The Bridge reported that ICE previously used Hanscom Field, an airport in Bedford, to fly detainees to other states with more space. But a spokesperson for ICE recently told The Concord Bridge that Hanscom was no longer being used. On July 30 WMUR  reported that ICE has been using Portsmouth International Airport in New Hampshire instead of Hanscom to fly detainees to other states since earlier this summer.

How to seek information

State Rep. Thomas M. Stanley of Waltham said resources are available for those trying to track down information about friends or family members detained by ICE and moved out of state.

Stanley pointed to ICE’s own online detainee locator tool. The tool, available on ICE’s website, allows individuals to search for detainees who have been in the custody of ICE for more than 48 hours by using their name and date of birth.

Stanley said the state’s Office for Refugees and Immigrant Programs and Services also lists programs such as available legal services on its website.

Stanley said many remain fearful.

“People are scared of losing their loved ones or leaving loved ones behind,” Stanley said. “They are scared of the tactics being used. Our school superintendent had to write a letter to ICE urging them not to come during school hours because of how traumatizing it is for students and their friends.”

He said the impacts of the detainments and deportations happening as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration impact the community as a whole.

Stanley, who serves as a chair of the Joint Committee on Aging and Independence  for the House of Representatives, said ICE’s actions are affecting operations in the state’s nursing homes.

“I’m hearing of staff at nursing homes missing shifts due to fear of ICE. Continuity of care is so important for those in long-term care. Caregivers who have worked for years with patients get to know their needs and when they leave it is incredibly disruptive,” he said.

Councilor-at-large Colleen Bradley-MacArthur said the lack of information that ICE releases is troubling as are actions once immigrants are in custody.

“Once these folks are detained,” she said, “they’re moved around so much that families are having a hard time keeping track of where their loved ones are.”

Bradley-MacArthur said she recently attended a virtual court hearing for a Waltham resident who had been detained by ICE.

She said bail was set for the detainee, but then Trump’s firing of that immigration judge halted the hearing process and kept the detainee in custody.

“So if there’s no one to hear these cases, then that means there’s no justice being delivered. The entire process is collapsing,” she said.