The Anatomy of an Immigration Raid

When federal immigration agents raided a factory in New Bedford, Mass., the workers were producing safety vests and backpacks for the U.S. military. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) moved to detain and deport most of the workers almost immediately. Many of their families were left behind to wait for news about their loved ones and judicial decisions.

In the early March raid, ICE agents arrested 361 people, most of whom were women. ICE released only 25 of the women that day, and approximately 25 the following day. All of the others were taken to Fort Devens, Mass., for temporary detention at a decommissioned military fort. ICE loaded detainees onto buses and flew them across the country. Most of the detainees were transferred to facilities in south Texas, where they were far from their families, communities, and the fleet of pro bono lawyers who were willing to represent the group who came to be known as “the New Bedford detainees.”

After the raids, immigration lawyers immediately sought access to the detainees. ICE did not grant full access to them. It denied Ondine Galvez Sniffen of Catholic Social Services when she asked to speak with the workers at the factory on the day of the raid. Greater Boston Legal Services coordinated teams of lawyers, paralegals and students to interview the detainees at Fort Devens. ICE granted access to only those detainees the lawyers could name. In two long nights spent at Fort Devens, the legal teams interviewed a mere fraction of the detainees. ICE transported most of the detainees out of Massachusetts, so the lawyers’ efforts to meet with all of the New Bedford detainees prior to transfer failed.

Approximately 200 detainees ended up in south Texas, far from their families and advocates. A group of immigration lawyers filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Massachusetts to prevent this transfer. However, as papers for the lawsuit were being prepared and filed, ICE moved the last of the 200 detainees out of Massachusetts, where the federal district court would lose jurisdiction over them.

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