Newburyport: Soothing Immigration Fears

Police Officers Will Not Work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

NEWBURYPORT – While undocumented persons are being whisked away to jails in the U.S. and abroad, Marshall Matthew Simons told the city’s Human Rights Commission two weeks ago that Newburyport police officers are “not something to be afraid of.”

Simons wore his uniform to the meeting on the second floor of the Senior Center to emphasize that the men and women who wear that uniform are committed to taking care of residents regardless of their immigration status.

The police will not impede or obstruct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, but they will not work directly with them either.  “It is the law,” he said.

He promised in the next few weeks to have the rights of undocumented workers printed on the police department’s web site in both Spanish and Portuguese.  He was asked if his department would also print those rights on cards that could be distributed in the community.

The Newburyport police officers are committed to unbiased law enforcement, enforcing only state and local laws, he said. They will not stop someone in a car or walking on the sidewalk to check whether they are here legally.

Relations between the schools and the police have never been better, he said. One of the commission members said that a young Afghan girl told the school resource officer she wants to be a police officer when she grows up.

Simons said that story made him happy to hear.

As a community, “we are doing pretty well,” he said. He attributed the good relations to the large number of officers who are trained and value service.

Protests against deportations, which has attracted as many as 300 people, have gone well. He asked only to be made aware of any upcoming protests.  ♦