The group chat pings. Not jokes, not holiday cheer — just a plate number, a time, a face to watch. Between school drop-offs, split shifts and lunch breaks, neighbors slip into East Boston District Court, scanning for plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. They log plates, film detainments, call the LUCE hotline and steer families toward help.
On paper, they’re ordinary — a nurse, a student, a dad — but in practice, they’ve taken on a second, unpaid job: documenting their neighborhood’s immigration arrests near the courthouse.
On Friday, a member of a watchdog group arrived at the courthouse for his volunteer shift before starting his regular job later that day. He asked the clerks for a printed copy of the daily docket, then crossed the hall to the courtroom and waited for proceedings to begin…