Amendment #431 to H4100

Immigration Verification and Secure Communities

Representatives Jones of North Reading, Peterson of Grafton, Hill of Ipswich, Poirier of North Attleborough, deMacedo of Plymouth, Adams of Andover, Barrows of Mansfield, Bastien of Gardner, Beaton of Shrewsbury, Boldyga of Southwick, D'Emilia of Bridgewater, Diehl of Whitman, Durant of Spencer, Fattman of Sutton, Ferguson of Holden, Gifford of Wareham, Harrington of Groton, Howitt of Seekonk, Humason of Westfield, Hunt of Sandwich, Kuros of Uxbridge, Levy of Marlborough, Lombardo of Billerica, Lyons of Andover, O'Connell of Taunton, Orrall of Lakeville, Ross of Attleboro, Smola of Palmer, Vieira of Falmouth, Webster of Pembroke, Winslow of Norfolk, Wong of Saugus and Frost of Auburn move to amend the bill, by inserting after SECTION XX, the following sections:—

“SECTION XX. Section 27B of chapter 261 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting at the end thereof the following:—

For the purposes of verifying income eligibility, said affidavit of indigency shall include the respective indigent party’s social security number. Said affidavit, complete with social security number, shall be transmitted to the department of revenue for verification.

SECTION XX. Section 47 of chapter 277 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by inserting at the end thereof the following sentence:—

The immigration status of every defendant, including but not limited to those accused of a violation of section 24 of chapter 90 of the general laws, a violation of section 10 of chapter 90 of the general laws, or a like violation of an offense classified as Level I as referenced by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities Program, shall be confirmed at the arraignment stage of any criminal court proceeding. In the event the defendant is unlawfully present within the United States, the defendant’s status shall be transmitted to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

SECTION XX. Within 6 months of the passage of this act, the executive office of public safety shall report to the joint committee on public safety and homeland security and the clerks of the senate and house of representatives the actions undertaken by the commonwealth to assist with the deployment of the Secure Communities Program as administered by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Said report shall include each of the jurisdictions within the commonwealth that are currently enrolled in the program, those jurisdictions not yet enrolled, the number of criminal aliens that have been identified utilizing the program, the estimated costs of any technology upgrades necessary to deploy the program statewide, and any upgrades that may be required in order to maximize the data available to municipal police through the Criminal Justice Information Services Division Wide Area Network. The secretary shall designate a liaison that shall facilitate the statewide deployment of the Secure Communities program in cooperation with the United States Department of Homeland Security.”.