New ICE surge spurs a refocusing on education, response
Community training on how to handle unprecedented tactics, such as ICE agents in unmarked vehicles, is under consideration.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained two people in Acton this month as a statewide detention surge got underway.
The blitz also brought detainee flights back to Hanscom Field, sparking outrage among Concordians and calls for transparency from airport advisory board members.
“What do we have to do to get it to stop?” Acton Indivisible founder Kate Kavanagh said in an interview with The Acton Bridge.
DEI Commission co-Chair Rose Cratsley said recent ICE activity “is deeply troubling” and said this is “a stark reminder that we must stand together to protect the dignity of every resident and family.”
Cratsley and Acton-Carlisle Human Rights Council co-Chair Court Booth said the enforcement surge underscores the need for training on how to respond.
ICE detentions
Federal agents came to Acton on September 7 after local police arrested a man for allegedly driving drunk on Route 2.
Police released Eduardo Calderon Navarro on personal recognizance. Lt. Timothy Landers said ICE agents were waiting outside CPD headquarters to detain Navarro and a person who came to pick him up.
ICE had no contact with Acton police, but federal agents can see when officers enter fingerprints into law enforcement databases, Landers said.
This is at least the second time since President Donald Trump took office that ICE has detained people outside the Acton police station. The town has an informal policy under which CPD neither complies nor interferes with immigration enforcement.
In these cases, Landers said, the police parking lot is public and officers can’t stop people from waiting there.
Navarro, 40, of Gardner, had an arraignment scheduled in Acton District Court on September 8 but did not appear. Court records did not list an attorney in his case.
Landers declined to release the Acton police report from Navarro’s arrest, citing public records exemptions.
Hanscom flights
An ICE spokesperson didn’t answer questions about where Navarro was being held, and searches in ICE’s detainee locator system yielded no results.
ICE has an intake center in Burlington and contracts with the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office to house some detainees at the county jail in Plymouth. The latter facility fills up fast, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has relied increasingly on domestic charter flights to move people to larger centers.
ICE stopped using Hanscom in July after a series of protests. Last week, ICE Boston spokesperson James Covington confirmed the agency had returned and that flights were running in support of the ongoing Operation Patriot 2.0.
ICE announced its surge on September 6 as a statewide sweep targeting “the worst of the worst.” In an MSNBC appearance, Gov. Maura Healey denounced the operation as “political theater.”
Advocates began sounding alarms about the resumption of Hanscom flights. Hanscom Field Advisory Commission Chair Margaret Coppe circulated a draft letter demanding information.
HFAC approved one letter on Tuesday to be sent to Massport — which owns Hanscom — and discussed writing a second letter addressed to ICE.
While advocates track purported ICE flights based on previous public records disclosures and known patterns, Covington said ICE doesn’t confirm specific details to protect “officer safety and operational success.”
Training and protests
Booth was at an “active bystander training” at Kerem Shalom synagogue on September 7 just hours after police arrested Navarro nearby.
Asked a few days later, he said those trainings yield some lessons. But the community needs more help in understanding how to handle unprecedented tactics such as agents in unmarked vehicles and plainclothes seizing people off the street.
The job might go beyond groups like the Human Rights Council, Booth said, but training is necessary.
“We’re certainly having to rethink a lot of things now,” he said.
Protesters gathered outside Hanscom earlier this year. Groups have espoused more general pro-democracy and anti-Trump messages at weekly Acton Center standouts.
With ICE in her backyard, Kavanagh said, she and others are interested in publicizing ties between businesses with local footprints and immigration enforcement operations.
She feels that many protests are happening for the sake of the protesters themselves. This can be valuable, Kavanagh said, but she worries it’s not affecting people in power. She hopes hitting business bottom lines might change the tide.
“How we can make those people who are profiting from these actions pay?” she asked.
Trace Salzbrenner contributed reporting.
