1. United States
2. Mass.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to implement immediate restrictions on the use of unmarked state and municipal police vehicles for routine police details and traffic stops while ICE enforcement activity remains at heightened levels in our community. ICE recently expanded its workforce by 120 percent, growing from 10,000 to 22,000 officers and agents in less than a year. These newly hired personnel are now deployed nationwide and actively conducting arrests and enforcement operations. This dramatic increase in federal immigration enforcement has created widespread anxiety among residents who cannot easily distinguish between routine local police activity and federal immigration actions. When unmarked police vehicles conduct traffic stops or police details, residents have no way to immediately identify whether they are encountering local law enforcement or federal immigration agents. This confusion undermines the critical distinction between local police who serve our community and federal agents conducting immigration enforcement. The inability to visually identify law enforcement creates unnecessary fear that erodes trust between police and the communities they serve. Requiring marked vehicles for routine police work during this period of intensified ICE activity serves multiple public safety goals. It allows residents to clearly identify local police, reducing confusion and panic. It protects the relationship between local law enforcement and immigrant communities, which is essential for effective policing when witnesses and victims need to feel safe reporting crimes. It also ensures transparency in law enforcement operations at a time when clarity is desperately needed. I ask that you introduce or support legislation requiring all state and municipal police to use clearly marked vehicles for traffic stops and police details while ICE enforcement operations remain elevated. This straightforward measure would provide immediate reassurance to constituents while maintaining effective law enforcement operations. Our communities need this clarity now.