A vote on legislation supported by Democrats as a way to counter the crackdown on illegal immigration begun by President Donald Trump has been indefinitely suspended by leaders of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
The bill would have blocked the use of state funds to execute agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have local and state law enforcement officers trained to function as immigration agents for the federal government.
The strong voice of those opposed to the legislation, including emails and phone calls, was credited as helping to stop the vote in a Twitter post from Billerica Republican Representative Mark Lombardo.
The bill was filed by New Bedford Representative Antonio Cabral and was one of two scheduled for debate yesterday by Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo under recommendations from a special working group in the House as well as the Judiciary Committee as a response to the policy agenda of the Trump administration.
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Communications Director Marion Davis said that they are disappointed by the decision and believe that the House still needs to make a stand to ensure that the state’s resources are used for the benefit of its people rather than to implement the deportation agenda of the federal government.
The House did advance a bill that would stop Sheriffs from being able to offer state inmates as a labor force outside of Massachusetts. The legislation was filed by Cabral as a response to the suggestion made by Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson to use inmates to build the wall on the US-Mexico border.