WORCESTER, Mass. — Worcester has amended its policy on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in the city. The original guidelines, issued last May, banned the use of city resources for civil federal immigration enforcement. The new guidelines now prohibit ICE from using the city’s property for staging operations and require local police to verify federal ICE agents on scene and make all body-worn camera footage public. Worcester City Manager Eric Batista said the changes follow public concern about nationwide operations.
“What I’m doing with this is providing a message to the federal agents that there’s parameters in the city. There’s some guidelines in the city and if they’re going to be engaging in this community, to do whatever it is they’re called to do, that they need to do it in a way that respects the city of Worcester,” Batista said.
Batista added that Worcester Police will not confront Federal law enforcement. “I’m not saying in this report or in this order or in this policy that I’m asking our police department to confront and challenge them. What I’m doing with this is providing a message to the federal agents that there is a parameters in the city, there’s some guidelines in the city, and that if they’re going to be engaging in this community to do whatever it is that they’re called to do, that they need to do it in a way that respects the city of Worcester and respects the guidelines and the policies that we put in place. But at the same time, I’m not asking my officers to be put in a position, again, where you could potentially have a law enforcement agent, an armed law enforcement agency against another armed law enforcement agency. That’s not a good scenario to have, and that’s not one that we’re inviting as part of this policy.”…