The time has come to provide the important protections embedded in the Safe Communities Act to all immigrants living in the commonwealth.

— Elizabeth Ennen ’08

For the second time in two years, Northeastern Law’s Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) submitted testimony to the Massachusetts General Court’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security in support of the proposed Safe Communities Act, which seeks to protect the civil rights and safety of all Massachusetts residents by limiting the involvement of local law enforcement officers in federal immigration enforcement.

PHRGE’s January testimony highlighted data from its recent report Safe Communities in Massachusetts: The Response of Massachusetts Municipalities to the Immigration Enforcement Policies of the Trump Administration, coauthored by Elizabeth Ennen ’08, director of PHRGE, Andra Lehotay de León ’23 and Colleen Maney ’20. The report documents the adoption of 58 safe community policies in 49 Massachusetts municipalities between January 2017 and January 2021 and finds that nearly 90 percent of these policies seek to reduce local police officers’ voluntary collaboration with federal immigration enforcement officials. “The adoption of safe community policies in so many Massachusetts municipalities is a sign that we are more than ready for the Safe Communities Act — and that the time has come to provide the important protections embedded in the Safe Communities Act to all immigrants living in the commonwealth,” wrote Ennen, author of the testimony.