Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday, May 28, released guidance for schools, colleges, day care centers, places of worship and other "vulnerable spaces" when dealing with potential immigration enforcement action.
"I took action after seeing what ICE was doing across this country," Healey said at a press conference. "Storming into neighborhoods, ripping kids away from their moms and dads, arresting and detaining U.S. citizens and lawful immigrants. Arresting and shooting peaceful protesters and overturning long-standing federal policies by going into vulnerable spaces where people expect to be safe. Child care centers, schools, campuses, hospitals and places of worship."
The guidance states that all educational entities and other vulnerable spaces should have written policies and make them known to staff.
The guidance states that if a federal agent arrives, they should be denied entry and kept off the premises until an administrator is available. The entities should immediately contact their attorneys and notify them a federal agent is outside. The administrator, while speaking with the attorney on the phone, should speak to the federal agent and determine if they have a valid judicial warrant to enter.
If the agent does have a valid judicial warrant, they are to be permitted into the building. However, the administrator should request that the agent be kept away from areas where any students or children are present. Staff and faculty are discouraged from providing any information to federal agents about individual students or children, families or staff and employees under any circumstances.
The guidance includes information to help distinguish a judicial warrant from an administrative warrant. A leaked memo from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported in May 2025 indicated that the federal agency was using administrative warrants to enter homes to conduct immigration enforcement, which some advocates argue violates federal law.
Additional instruction includes details on how to post appropriate signage in a building such as a school, marking private areas in those buildings as restricted to the public.
"A lot of our colleagues don't know what they can and cannot do," Mariana White-Hammond, pastor at New Roots African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, said at the press conference. "We've assumed that if a law enforcement officer shows up that they know the rules, but what we've learned is that is not true and so the guidance gives pretty clear instruction, from what kind of signage they need, what can be said to parishioners, how you can clarify what is a closed service. They didn't teach us this at seminary."
In January 2025, then-Worcester Superintendent Rachel Monárrez made a formal announcement that the Worcester Public Schools would not coordinate with ICE agents, and that ICE agents are not permitted on Worcester Public Schools property without a criminal judicial warrant, signed by a federal judge.
"Principals and school-based staff have received detailed guidance on protecting students’ rights, responding to ICE interactions and supporting students whose parents or guardians may be detained during the school day," Monárrez stated in a letter that went out to parents.
Healey claimed that she filed the "strongest legislation in the country" to keep ICE out of community spaces and courthouses. Healey signed an executive order in January that banned ICE from using state property as staging locations for immigration raids.
Healey reiterated several times during her press conference on Thursday morning that ICE is prohibited from entering any nonpublic areas without a valid judicial warrant.
"ICE cannot enter a nonpublic area without a valid judicial warrant. ICE may not make civil immigration arrests in private areas," Healey said. "I wish we didn't have to be here today to continue to defend our residents from unlawful and harmful actions by federal agents, but the Trump administration and ICE agents have made it clear they are not changing course."
Healey went on to say that ICE has refused to tell the state who from Massachusetts has been detained, something she said she has been asking about for months.
"They haven't told us anything because they know what we know – they aren't going after people who are safety threats," Healey said. "But they are still making people afraid to send their kids to school, to go to work, to seek health care, to pray and worship. They are making people afraid to go to court and report crimes. It isn't making anyone safer, it is making us all less safe."
The T&G reached out to ICE's press department for a statement regarding Healey's guidance. An unnamed ICE spokesperson responded, stating that Healey's guidance was "virtue signaling."
"This is virtue signaling at its finest. Can Governor Healey point to a single instance where ICE has conducted enforcement activities at schools, child care providers, health care facilities, higher education institutions, or places of worship in Massachusetts?" the statement said. "Her ‘guidance’ is inventing a problem to solve. Instead, we should focus on the vast number of illegal aliens charged with crimes in Massachusetts that have been released back into the community rather than being turned over to ICE. That is a number larger than zero, and a real problem that should be addressed."
Healey said that on Wednesday evening the Trump administration filed a complaint, suing Massachusetts' Registry of Motor Vehicles for failing to provide ICE agents with confidential license plates to perform operations in the state.
"They wanted us to give ICE confidential license plates so they can operate in secret in Massachusetts – in secret even from our law enforcement," Healey said. "I have a message for ICE – not in Massachusetts. We support law enforcement doing legitimate law enforcement, that is not what we are seeing from ICE."
When asked during the press conference what would happen if ICE did not follow the rules and laws set up in Massachusetts, Healey said that it would be reported to the attorney general's office and "appropriate action" would be taken.
"Should they not follow the rules and regulations here in Massachusetts, and I would be very disappointed if I saw that, it would be immediately reported to our office and the office of the attorney general and appropriate action will be taken," Healey said. "I am being really clear about the rules here and the rules around these sensitive spaces."
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: State issues guidance on how to handle ICE agents at schools, churches