AFT Massachusetts Advocates for Additional Protections for Immigrant Students and Families (May 7, 2026)
For months, the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts has advocated for Massachusetts to make steps to protect our immigrant communities, including immigrant students, their families, and the schools that serve them.
Today, the Massachusetts Senate passed An Act promoting rule of law, oversight, trust and equal constitutional treatment (PROTECT Act) to safeguard all residents, especially the state’s immigrant families, from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers operating with unchecked authority as they implement the White House’s immigration agenda. The Senate version of this critical legislation incorporates many priorities the AFT Massachusetts advocated for, including a ban on ICE agents from entering schools and childcare facilities.
“No one should be afraid to drop their child off at school or go to the hospital for care or get essentials at the grocery store because they’re worried about being targeted simply by the color of their skin,” said AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang. “We remain committed to working with the legislature, the Healey Administration, and critical allies to build upon today’s steps and ensure we’re doing everything we can at the state and local level to protect our students and ensure our schools remain safe spaces for them to learn and grow.”
For more than thirty years, schools, hospitals, and places of worship were considered “sensitive locations” – places protected from immigration enforcement. Under the Trump Administration, those places have been stripped of these protections, allowing ICE agents to target residents and families at their most vulnerable.
A key provision of today’s bill strengthens protections at sensitive locations by prohibiting officers from making warrantless civil immigration enforcement arrests at certain sensitive locations, including houses of worship, public school grounds, childcare facilities, health care providers, and state courts, so people can utilize these resources and fully participate in their communities.
The House passed their version of the PROTECT Act last month. In January, Governor Maura Healey took strong initial steps by filing similar legislation and signing an Executive Order laying out many of the provisions passed today.
Key protections included in today’s bill include:
- Establishes a system for “standby guardianship” allowing parents to designate an alternative guardian that will spring into effect for 30 days in the event they are detained or deported;
- Bans law enforcement agencies from entering agreements with federal immigration enforcement;
- Protects public employees from federal probes;
- Directs the Attorney General’s office to work with public and private schools, child care providers, medical providers, and shelters to make sure that they know their rights and have policies in place for interacting with ICE and knowing how to ask for warrants;
- Creates a new civil liability and holds federal agents to the same standards that municipal and state law enforcement officers must live up to;
- Gives the Attorney General authority to protect residents from ICE or other federal agents from deploying intimidation tactics at polling places; and
- Prioritizes the safety of immigrant residents who are victims of crime, including victims of human trafficking, when they are cooperating as witnesses by expediting special visa applications and ensuring they can stay in the Commonwealth and bring criminals to justice.
The AFT Massachusetts represents educators and public school employees working in many of the state’s Gateway Cities. These districts, including Boston, Lynn, Lawrence, and Chelsea, are seeing significant enrollment drops due to the current immigration climate. Not only do these communities stand to lose generations of students, they face devastating shortfalls in funding due to enrollment declines that impact all students.
“These districts are already disproportionately impacted by the White House’s agenda to dismantle public education as we know it. Many of the families they serve have resorted to sheltering in place—afraid that just going to school puts their family at risk. For parents, every day they send their child to school is a day they may have just put their own livelihoods and lives at risk,” continued Tang. “These students haven’t disappeared or left and we must do everything in our power to protect our immigrant families and ensure their schools have the tools and resources they need to support them.”
To prevent these catastrophic shortfalls, the AFT Massachusetts is calling on the state to intervene, like it did during the COVID-19 pandemic, and support districts facing enrollment disruptions.
The House Budget for Fiscal Year 2027 includes a $10 million reserve fund to support districts facing unexpected disruptions in enrollment of English language learners.
“We look forward to continuing our work to ensure the schools serving our immigrant families can not only survive this crisis, but have the foundation in place to support these students when it is ‘safe’ for them to return,” continued Tang. “Students, educators and their families should feel safe in their neighborhoods and schools. The Protect Act will help to restore the trust and safety needed for thriving communities.”