Amendment #227 to H4400

An Amendment regarding sanctuary cities and towns

Representatives Diehl of Whitman, O'Connell of Taunton, Boldyga of Southwick, Lyons of Andover, Mirra of West Newbury and DeCoste of Norwell move to amend the bill by adding the following 2 sections:

“SECTION X. Chapter 276 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 20R the following section:

Section 20S. Any employee of the commonwealth, or a public instrumentality or political subdivision thereof, who holds police powers or the powers of a sheriff or deputy sheriff, including but not limited to municipal police officers, court officers and state troopers, and who has lawful custody of a person may, upon receipt of: (1) a written request from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement requesting detention of such person on the grounds that there is probable cause that such person is a removable alien and (2) an administrative warrant for arrest or warrant of removal or deportation, detain such person for a reasonable period of time after such person would otherwise be released from custody to transfer custody of such person to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

SECTION Y.  Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, no city or town that: (i) fails to comply with a written request to detain a person on the grounds that such person is a removable alien from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement as described in section 20S of chapter 276 of the General Laws; or (ii) makes a declaration of “sanctuary city” status by the chief executive officer or legislative body of the city or town shall receive unrestricted local aid pursuant to section 3 or any subsequent appropriations act by the general court.  The inspector general shall investigate and certify violations of a city or town to comply with this section, in writing, to the comptroller.  Upon receipt of a certification of the inspector general that a violation has occurred, the comptroller shall make no payment of unrestricted local aid to the city or town."