Massachusetts lawmakers strike deal on bill they say will bolster protections for immigrants

Massachusetts state lawmakers on Wednesday said they have struck a deal on a bill they said would protect immigrants in “sensitive locations” such as courthouses and schools, and build upon a nearly decade-old court decision that bars local officials from holding a person in custody if they are wanted solely for civil immigration violations.

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Democrats who lead the Massachusetts House and Senate, as well as Governor Maura Healey, this year coalesced around proposed protections for immigrants amid the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation push and after federal immigration agents fatally shot two people in Minnesota.

The legislative deal comes weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a man in Maine, and at a time when tens of thousands of Haitians in Massachusetts are losing temporary immigration protections.

Lawmakers did not immediately release the text of the agreement, but in a statement, its chief negotiators said the proposal “will make Massachusetts’ immigrant protections among the strongest in the nation.”

“We believe that all Massachusetts residents deserve equal protection under both the United States Constitution and Massachusetts Constitution, regardless of where they were born or their color, creed, or immigration status,” state Senator Cindy Friedman of Arlington and Representative Dan Cahill of Lynn said in a joint statement.

Healey, the House, and the Senate all released their own versions of the proposal — dubbed by supporters as the “PROTECT Act” — that included some form of prohibition on federal immigration officers entering or making arrests in state courthouses or other locations.

The statement from Friedman and Cahill did not immediately clarify what version of that language survived private negotiations.

In their statement, the two lawmakers said that the legislation “offers avenues and delivers tools for the Commonwealth to provide protections for our residents — specifically at sensitive locations including courthouses, schools, health care facilities, and childcare centers.”

Stephen Acosta, a spokesperson for Friedman, declined to elaborate.

Friedman and Cahill also said their bill “affirms and expands upon” a 2017 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that bars local law enforcement from detaining someone based solely on suspected civil immigration violations.

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The two lawmakers said they planned to file the full agreement later Wednesday, with the “hope” the House and Senate take a vote to send it to Healey’s desk “later this week.”

State lawmakers are up against a Friday deadline to place bills into six-member negotiating committees before the traditional stretch of formal lawmaking ends for the year. Legislators can still take recorded votes on anything that emerges from those negotiating committees through early January.

Democratic governors across the country have been grappling with the specter of immigration surges in their own states since President Trump took office last year. Federal immigration agents have launched multiple concerted operations in Massachusetts.

Friedman and Cahill said the legislation also gives “victims of unjustified actions by federal immigration agents” the ability to sue in state court when their constitutional rights have been violated.

State Senator William Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat, proposed a bill earlier this year that would have put in place a similar policy.

“As state legislators, we swore an oath to protect and defend these Constitutions and therefore must do everything we can to ensure our constituents have access to the rights enshrined within them,” Friedman and Cahill said.

Healey said the immigration-related bill is “about protecting our residents, protecting our communities in the face of just unbelievable unconstitutional and, I think, un-American actions out of the Trump administration on immigration generally.”

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“I hope that gets to my desk this week,” she said.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Kelly Garrity of the Globe staff contributed reporting.