BOSTON — Free Speech For People, a Massachusetts-based legal advocacy organization, is calling on state prosecutors to open criminal investigations into federal immigration raids carried out under President Donald Trump.
In a Dec. 11 letter to Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden,
Middlesex County District Attorney Marian T. Ryan, Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker, and
Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early, Jr., attorneys for Free Speech For People wrote that federal agents have “kidnapped and assaulted residents with no criminal records or reason to believe they are undocumented” as part of “an orchestrated retaliation campaign against Massachusetts and Boston for their perceived political affiliation.”
According to the letter, the raids — dubbed “Patriot 1.0” and “Patriot 2.0” by the Trump administration, which primarily target Latino and immigrant communities in Massachusetts — were billed as efforts to target “hardened criminals,” but “most of the individuals detained have had no significant criminal history.” The group argues that the operations “have made communities less secure, tearing apart families and brutalizing residents,” and are intended “to repress and punish dissent, not to enforce federal law.”
The letter cites several Massachusetts incidents, including an 18-year-old allegedly taken into custody on his way to volleyball practice “with no warrant or reason to detain him,” a worker who says he was beaten in custody after agents discovered he had a green card, and a 13-year-old boy arrested in local police custody and transferred out of state despite a court order that he remain in Massachusetts. In another case, the group says federal agents who “did not identify themselves” raided a Boston car wash and arrested nine employees, without giving the employees, who spoke limited English, a chance to retrieve their papers from their lockers.
Free Speech For People contends that, under Massachusetts law, federal agents and officials involved in such conduct may be criminally liable for assault and battery, civil rights violations, assault and battery for purposes of intimidation, and kidnapping. The letter further argues that Supremacy Clause immunity does not shield federal officials who act “outside the law or beyond what is subjectively and objectively necessary and proper” and that presidents are not immune for using “military-style force against civilians to stifle political dissent.”
“We urge your offices to immediately begin a thorough investigation to determine whether charges should be brought against those responsible for the unlawful conduct cited in this letter,” the group wrote.
