Measure Calls on Attorney General and District Attorneys to Enforce State Criminal Statutes When Federal Officers Break the Law

AMHERST, MA (February 24, 2026) The Amherst Town Council voted Monday night to pass a resolution urging Massachusetts state and local officials to hold federal officers, including federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, accountable when they violate Massachusetts criminal law. Of the councilors who voted, the vote was unanimous with 9 councilors in support. Two councilors abstained and two were absent from the vote.

The resolution, titled “Calling for Federal Immigration Agents to Be Held Accountable for Violations of Massachusetts Criminal Law,” calls on Attorney General Andrea Campbell and the Commonwealth’s district attorneys to open criminal investigations into unlawful actions by federal immigration agents operating in Massachusetts.

The measure also urges Governor Maura Healey to cease cooperation agreements with ICE, including any pending agreements involving the Department of Corrections.

Supporters say the resolution affirms a foundational principle: federal officials and agents are subject to state criminal jurisdiction when they commit state crimes. 

“This resolution isn’t abstract,” said Councilor Jill Brevik, the lead sponsor of the resolution. “ICE’s illegal operations have impacted residents of Amherst and surrounding communities directly, and we know that when any of our neighbors have their rights stripped away, none of us can take those rights for granted. Silence and complying in advance created the environment that has enabled ICE agents to commit crimes and human rights abuses, and as a result, it is critically important for our local and state-level leaders to speak loudly and take clear action to fight back and change course. The work doesn’t end here, and I look forward to staying engaged. And I hope Amherst’s resolution kicks off a wave of similar resolutions in cities and towns across the state.”

The resolution references several reported incidents in Massachusetts, including:

• The March 2025 kidnapping and detention of Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk following her co-authorship of an opinion piece critical of U.S. government conduct and in support of Palestinian human rights;
• Reports of an 18-year-old in Worcester County detained without a warrant and held without adequate food or access to showers;
• Reports of a lawful permanent resident in Essex County kidnapped and assaulted;
• Allegations of excessive force and civil rights violations in encounters with Massachusetts residents.

“When our constitutional rights, our civil liberties and our very lives come under attack by Trump’s lawless agents, we need every public official to stand with the people to fight back,” said Amherst resident Jeff Conant, who helped organize public support for the resolution. “This common sense resolution by our town council should serve as a model for every town and city in the Commonwealth and across the nation.”

“Our community will hold all levels of government accountable to the highest standard of protection for our immigrant, migrant, and refugee neighbors from the Federal deportation machine,” said Sasha Morsmith, Co-Chair of River Valley Democratic Socialists of America, based in Holyoke, Massachusetts. “We won’t stop organizing until all working people can live in freedom and dignity. Amherst must take the steps called for in the resolution, and we will continue fighting for the abolition of ICE.”

Free Speech For People, a national non-profit legal advocacy organization, helped to draft the resolution. John Bonifaz, constitutional attorney and President of Free Speech For People, emphasized the legal basis for the measure.

“State and local prosecutors in Massachusetts and across the country have a sworn duty to enforce state criminal laws against federal agents who commit crimes in their states,” said Bonifaz. “There is no such thing as absolute immunity for federal ICE agents. While the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution allows federal agents to carry out their lawful duties across the country, they do not have immunity to commit murder, to kidnap, to commit assault and battery, and to engage in illegal detentions. They do not have immunity to commit crimes.  Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell and district attorneys across Massachusetts must enforce state criminal laws against ICE agents for their unlawful actions in this state.”

The resolution cites a December 11, 2025 letter which Free Speech For People issued to Attorney General Campbell and district attorneys in Massachusetts calling on them to investigate federal agents for criminal acts they have already committed in Massachusetts, one of a series of letters the organization has issued to state and local prosecutors in multiple states across the country.

The resolution will be formally transmitted to Governor Maura Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll,  Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan, and Amherst Town Manager Paul Bockelman.