How a “Sanctuary Community” REALLY operates

Unlike a “sanctuary city” or “sanctuary state,” no one can stop you from becoming part of one

Friends,

I received the following from Mike Connolly, a Massachusetts state representative from Somerville. It’s a good road map for how a “sanctuary community” should operate. I urge you to form one if you haven’t.

Here’s what Mike said:

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Last Saturday, a little after 10 am, I was gearing up to head out for a jog when I got an urgent call from an East Somerville constituent.

Three individuals had just been detained in the vicinity of Foss Park, and ICE and Homeland Security agents were now staging in SUVs near the East Somerville Community School.

Neighborhood and community leaders sent out a call for help. I immediately amplified that call on my social media and jumped in my RAV4 hybrid, making it over to East Somerville within the hour.

Somerville Stands Up for Immigrants

The first thing I noticed as I arrived on Pearl Street was how various residents were staked out on different corners, watching for ICE and communicating updates via text message.

Witnessing this brave, grassroots response filled me with an enormous sense of gratitude for our community — despite the ongoing nightmare that is the Trump Administration — here we were, collectively standing up for the most vulnerable among us!

As I drove toward the corner Pearl and Florence Streets, I found a parking spot across from an unmarked SUV that local residents were photographing and monitoring. Members of the LUCE Network and City Councillors Matt McLaughlin and JT Scott were also present. We also got word that the Somerville Police Department had just confirmed that these were in fact federal agents.

I double-checked my notes and immediately reviewed with folks some of the basic best practices for engaging with ICE and Homeland Security in this context:

1. Record every interaction.

2. If the federal agents are on private property, demand to see a judicial warrant signed by a judge.

3. If they are arresting someone (on public property), demand to see an administrative warrant.

4. If they are arresting someone and not showing any warrant, demand they state their probable cause.

5. If you get in the way physically, you may be subject to federal criminal obstruction charges, which can be very serious.

After about fifteen minutes, the SUV we were observing took off, so we fanned out in different directions. Not long thereafter, we got a message that federal agents were now questioning an individual by the corner of Broadway and Hathorn Street. Myself and others ran several blocks in that direction —

As I arrived on Hathorn St., I saw a man being taken away in an unmarked SUV with New York plates. Councillor Scott managed to record the start of the interaction, and he and others immediately sent me video of how it all started.

In the video, federal agents are questioning a man on the sidewalk — the man was exceedingly polite, though he declined to offer his name (which he was not obligated to provide in this situation).

One agent performs a face scan of the man using what appears to be an app on his phone — thereafter, another agent is seen parsing through her phone, before ultimately declaring that the target of this interaction is “lawful” and proceeding to report to the other agents that this man is here lawfully.

Nevertheless, the first agent was then heard saying that the man “fit exactly the description of the problem we’re here to address“ — and with that, they handcuffed the man on the sidewalk and hauled him off in the unmarked SUV.

Of course, all of these agents kept their faces covered so as to hide their identities. For my part, I am co-sponsoring legislation to prohibit law enforcement from wearing face masks in these situations (although to be clear, legal experts say that principles of federal supremacy make it unlikely such a state law could be enforced against ICE).

Federal Agents Appear to Engage in Racial Profiling

I posted the video of this interaction to my socials — and it quickly stirred outrage online and in our community, racking up thousands of reactions.

On its face, this appears to be a textbook case of racial profiling. The agents acknowledged their target was here lawfully, but they arrest him anyways — because, they said, he “fit the description of the problem.” At no point did they produce a warrant or offer any probable cause. The reasonable conclusion here is this man was hauled off by federal agents simply because he was walking on the sidewalk and his skin was Brown.

After ICE cleared out, I immediately got to work with Congresswoman Pressley’s staff on next steps. Our first task: identifying the man who we just witnessed being arrested. The next day, neighborhood leaders organized a door-to-door canvass and made some tremendous efforts — but it unfortunately didn’t result in a name, nor did any of the social media or conventional media attention that came in the 48 hours after the arrest.

And we needed a name — because — despite our efforts — you can’t just call up ICE and ask them to give you the names of people they’ve abducted in Somerville. They are not very cooperative in that regard, to say the least.

This got me thinking — when they founded this country some 250 years ago, one of the core ideas was that it shouldn’t be this hard to figure out why someone was being deprived of their liberty (or where they are being held) by the government. That’s what the notion of Habeas Corpus is all about — and why this right is protected by Article 1 of both the United States Constitution and the Massachusetts Constitution.

Finally, a breakthrough: Magdaleno is identified and now has an attorney!

Finally, on Monday afternoon came a breakthrough!

I got a call from a local journalist — “check your DMs,” he said. Sure enough, multiple friends and co-workers of this unidentified man had seen the video on my social media and were reaching out to let me know the man’s name and that they are all worried sick for him.

His name is Magdaleno Pineda Avelar. He’s originally from El Salvador, and by all accounts he is loved by his family and all who know him. He’s also known as a very hard-worker, as his co-workers have attested to me. He lives in East Somerville, so this means he’s also my constituent.

Armed with a name, Congresswoman Pressley’s staff was able to quickly locate him — he’s being held in the Plymouth County correctional facility as part of an arrangement with ICE. While I support eliminating all state-level cooperation with ICE as a matter of principle — it should be noted that this is probably the best possible situation for Magdaleno under these circumstances. The alternatives to the Plymouth jail are the inhumane ICE detention facility in Burlington, Mass., or even worse, being moved out-of-state like Rumeysa Öztürk was, where access to local connections, resources, and support are all the more difficult.

Yesterday, I got word that Magdaleno’s co-workers had managed to obtain experienced immigration counsel to help with his case. A Habeas petition is now being filed, and he has a court date on October 6th.

His co-workers have set up a GoFundMe to help with legal expenses and other costs that Magdaleno will face as he tries to keep his life together, and they ask for your support.

Click here to support Magdaleno’s fundraiser.

Late this week, the Boston Globe highlighted Magdaleno’s story in the following article: Somerville ICE surge has residents keeping watch.

In the piece, Congresswoman Pressley says, “If not for the actions of state Rep. Connolly and other bystanders, his family would have no idea where their loved one is.” She goes on to say these lawless ICE activities are unacceptable….

We’ve made many strides in supporting immigrants on Beacon Hill in recent years — from making drivers licenses available to all regardless of immigration status and providing in-state tuition to undocumented youth — to most recently, appropriating a new line item in the FY26 state budget to provide $5 million for immigrant legal defense.

Thank you for reading …. Yours in service,

Mike