BOSTON — Police in Boston received 54 immigration detainers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement so far this year and honored none of them, according to a report House Judiciary Committee Republicans released Monday.

The interim staff report, titled "Boston: The Dangerous Consequences of Sanctuary Policies," was produced by the committee and its Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement. It says the Boston Police Department has not transferred anyone to ICE custody on the basis of a detainer since 2021.

A detainer is a request from ICE that a local agency hold someone already in its custody, or notify federal agents before releasing them, so immigration officers can take the person into custody.

The Trust Act

The report centers on Boston's Trust Act, signed in 2014 by then-Mayor Marty Walsh. According to the report, the ordinance bars Boston police from asking people about their immigration status, sharing information with ICE, making arrests on ICE administrative warrants without a separate criminal charge, transferring people to ICE custody or notifying the agency when someone is released.

Boston police honor a detainer only when it is accompanied by a warrant signed by a federal judge, the report says. Committee staff argue such warrants are effectively unavailable in most civil immigration cases, citing testimony from former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

The people subject to this year's detainers came from Colombia, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, China, Morocco and Venezuela, the report says, and many had final orders of removal or prior criminal records.

For 2025, the report cites ICE figures showing Boston police declined 167 detainers, including for people facing charges such as strangulation, assault and battery on a family member, and indecent assault and battery. The Boston Police Department put that year's number at 57, according to the report.

The report also says the Boston City Council voted to keep detainer-related information, including the criminal histories of people subject to detainers, from the public.

Cases cited

The report lists several cases in which it says the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department released people facing charges rather than turning them over to ICE, which later arrested them. They include a Salvadoran national charged with indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, a Colombian national charged with enticing a child under 16 and related offenses, and a Guatemalan national charged with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. The charges in those cases are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

The sheriff's department has not complied with ICE detainers for years and says it does not hold anyone past their sentence or bail on the basis of a detainer alone, according to the report. It ended its contract to house ICE detainees in 2019.

State law and the city's response

The report also points to Massachusetts law. A 2017 ruling by the state's Supreme Judicial Court, Lunn v. Commonwealth, held that state law does not authorize holding someone solely on a federal civil immigration detainer. In August, Gov. Maura Healey signed the PROTECT Act, which the report says further limits state and local participation in civil immigration enforcement and information sharing with ICE.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has said the city is "not participating" in federal immigration enforcement, according to the report. The Justice Department sued Boston, Wu and the police department in September 2025, arguing the Trust Act obstructs federal law, and Wu responded that the city "will not yield," the report says.

The report acknowledges that some officials argue the Trust Act improves public safety, citing a December 2024 statement from the Boston City Council.

The committee said it will continue its oversight and pointed to the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act, which it advanced in March. The bill would bar state and local policies that restrict cooperation with federal immigration officials and would tie federal funding to that cooperation.