On February 2, the City of Boston’s Office of Immigrant Advancement and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office released the “Emergency Planning Guide for Parents with Uncertain Immigration Status,” which provides legal options that a parent might want to consider for a child who would remain in the United States in the event of parental detention or deportation. 

This emergency guide was released in response to increasing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids throughout the country and the uncertain and ever-changing national immigration policy. According to the 2017 ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Report, 143,470 individuals throughout the country were arrested by ICE agents this past year, which is the highest number of administrative arrests over the past three years. Of those individuals, 81,000 were deported from the United States. 

With the increase in ICE arrests up by 42%, families throughout the country with uncertain status remain fearful and uncertain about what is to come. This guide provides an outline with step-by-step instructions on finding the appropriate care and custody options and offers resources on how a custody arrangement could impact a child’s access to government benefits. 

This spring, Sociedad Latina, along with a coalition of organizations and institutions, established the Mission Hill Rapid Response Network (MHRRN) to protect the rights of immigrants and respond to the needs of the Mission Hill immigrant community. The MHRRN’s goal is to create and maintain the infrastructure in which community leaders and allies can respond to immigration actions in Mission Hill. 

The direct actions of the MHRRN include:

• Hosting on-going “Know Your Rights” workshops and trainings for the Network and community members
• Coordinating and dispatching responders to locations where raids or other immigration enforcement activities are happening to witness, assist, and gather information 

If you own or work at a nonprofit in Boston, further details on what to do in the event of an ICE Raid can be found here. For more information regarding Sociedad Latina’s Mission Hill Rapid Response Network please feel free to reach out to Lydia@sociedadlatina.org

The full “Emergency Planning Guide” can be viewed here in English, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, and Spanish.