ICE detained 282 at Mass. courts in 2024. Trump more than doubled that figure
Federal immigration officers detained 614 people at the state's courthouses in 2025, according to data compiled by the security department for the Massachusetts Trial Court, a 117% increase from the year before.
The data shows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity was most concentrated near courts in Essex and Middlesex counties. Nearly a third of courthouse immigration arrests – 227 – occurred at courthouses in that region last year.
At the same time, the state courts were aware of only 22 arrests last year at courts in the four counties that make up Western Massachusetts, according to data provided by a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Trial Court.
The Trial Court gathered the data from the observations of court officers, according to Erika Gully-Santiago, a spokesperson. The state court system, she added, has a policy directing its officers neither to impede nor assist federal immigration officials attempting to detain someone.
The data provides a measure of ICE activity in the state. That is often difficult to track and contains gaps, even for groups devoted to collecting data on the federal government's deportation efforts.
Federal immigration enforcement at courthouses has become a flashpoint in Massachusetts, as the Trump administration has sought to increase deportations in the president's second term. For instance, a group has gathered outside East Boston District Court to monitor the activities of ICE there .
This week, LUCE Immigrant Justice Network held rallies outside state courthouses in the eastern part of the state in places like New Bedford, Boston and Lynn.
Among its demands: a ban on courthouse arrests by ICE, more virtual access to court proceedings and official support for "community-led court observer programs."
Gloribel Rivas-Soldz of LUCE said in a statement that Massachusetts residents should be able to access their courts without worrying of being detained by "rogue federal agents."
"People across Massachusetts are horrified that our neighbors are being disappeared at state and local courthouses — robbing all of us of the opportunity to be heard or to seek protection through the legal system in any meaningful way," Rivas-Soldz said.
LUCE said it had confirmed that federal immigration officials had visited district courts in Chicopee, Northampton, Palmer and Springfield.
Hampden District Attorney spokesperson Payton North said the office is not typically informed when ICE officers are at the courts, nor has it noticed an uptick in federal immigration activity.
"In a small number of cases, we are aware that defense attorneys have indicated individuals were taken into ICE custody following release, but we do not have direct knowledge of those circumstances," North wrote in an email.
LUCE's rallies come weeks after Gov. Maura Healey proposed legislation that would restrict what kinds of arrests federal immigration officials could make at the state's courthouses.
In a statement Jan. 29 announcing the proposed legislation, the governor's office said ICE maintained a policy for years that prevented its officers from pursuing people in schools, hospitals, houses of worship and courts. Trump rescinded that policy the day he took office on Jan. 20, 2025, the governor said.
The change has resulted in victims and witnesses staying away from courthouses, leading to released defendants and dropped charges, according the governor's office. Healey's proposal would prohibit ICE from carrying out civil arrests that lack a judicial warrant at the state's courts.
Healey's proposal is pending before the House Committee on Ways and Means.
Trial Court spokesperson Jennifer Donahue declined to comment on the governor's legislative proposal.
A spokesperson for ICE did not return a request for comment about Healey's legislation and its officers' activity at state courts.
Activity in 2024
In 2024, the year before Trump began his second term, ICE agents detained on average 23.5 people a month a state courts, a total of 282 people, according to the Trial Court.
Most of those arrests, 138 of them, occurred in courthouses in Essex and Middlesex counties. ICE detained only 11 people at state courts in Western Massachusetts during 2024.
The number of arrests at state courts spiked in May 2025, seemingly driven in part by ICE's Operation Patriot , which focused on immigration enforcement in Massachusetts for the month.
During that time, ICE detained 71 people at the state's courts, with courts in Worcester seeing the most activity, with 24 arrests. Western Massachusetts courts saw eight arrests by ICE that month.
At the time, Patricia Hyde, then acting field office director for ICE in Boston, said the operation focused on immigrants with "significant criminality" that "traumatized entire communities."
Overall, ICE said it detained 1,461 immigrants in Massachusetts during the operation.
The arrests at state courts rose throughout 2025, according to the Trial Court data, with ICE agents arresting 86 in December.
ICE detained 140 people at state courts in Worcester County in 2025. Across courts in Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Nantucket and Plymouth counties, ICE arrested 89 last year.
For state courts in Suffolk County last year saw 136 ICE arrests.
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