Beth Lindstrom To Joint Judiciary Committee Chairs: Pass Bipartisan Measure H.3870
Boston, MA: Beth Lindstrom, candidate for the U.S. Senate, sent a letter on Friday to the Chairs of the Joint Committee on Judiciary, State Senator William Brownsberger and State Representative Claire Cronin, urging them to pass H. 3870, a bipartisan measure that would empower law enforcement officials to cooperate with the United States to transfer custody of convicted criminals.
The full letter is as follows:??
BETH LIDSTROM
Dear Senator Brownsberger and Representative Cronin:
I am writing to express my strong support for H.3870, recommended by Governor Charles D. Baker on August 1 and referred to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary on August 3.??
People of goodwill can disagree on the right immigration policy for our nation, but there is widespread and bipartisan consensus that the United States should deport illegal immigrants who have committed serious crimes. This was the policy of the Obama administration, which apprehended and deported from the nation???s interior more than 60,000 individuals with criminal records in 2016 alone.
It is the policy of the Trump administration as well.
Such a policy is not only the minimum that we should expect of our nation in enforcing its immigration laws, but also critical to protecting public safety.
The Boston Globe reviewed the cases of 323 criminals who should have been deported but were instead released in New England during 2008???12 and found that ???as many as 30 percent committed new offenses, including rape, attempted murder, and child molestation.???
Until June, the Commonwealth could cooperate with federal authorities seeking to detain and remove illegal immigrants with criminal records. This cooperation was dealt a serious blow by the Supreme Judicial Court???s ruling in Lunn vs. Commonwealth, which held that state law does not give law-enforcement officials the authority to voluntarily and temporarily detain illegal immigrants at the request of the federal government.
H.3870 would re-establish that authority and has the strong support of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, which calls it ???a commonsense, policy-prudent, and safety-oriented approach to addressing the existing ???gap??? in the state of the current law.?????
The bill is modest in scope. It only establishes authority the state was already exercising prior to Lunn; it does not create new powers. It only provides the option of cooperation with federal law enforcement; it does not force local governments to take action. Opponents of the bill hide behind the claim that it will cause illegal immigrants to fear interaction with law enforcement, but it only affects illegal immigrants convicted of serious crimes and already taken back into custody for other reasons.??
The actual reason for opposition is the radical view that no person should be deported from the United States under any circumstances, which renders our nation powerless to enforce its own immigration laws. If the United States should not deport illegal immigrants with criminal records who pose a threat to public safety, who exactly should it deport?
If it should deport them, why wouldn???t we want the Commonwealth to cooperate with the federal government in doing so??? When the federal government takes actions or positions that run counter to the interests and values of our Commonwealth, we should have no obligation of assistance beyond what federal law requires???to the contrary, it is our obligation to stand steadfast for what we know is right. But when the federal government pursues correct, longstanding policies that uphold the rule of law and protect public safety, we should equip our law-enforcement officials to lend a hand.
For that reason, I urge you to support the Governor???s bill.
Sincerely,
Beth Lindstrom
Candidate for U.S. Senate??