Arrested in The Berkshires? Here’s Why ICE Could Come Knocking

Here's something interesting I just found out - if you get arrested in Pittsfield or anywhere else in The Berkshires on a felony charge, federal immigration agents may find out about it, whether local police intend that or not.

It's all about the fingerprinting

Here is how it works. When someone is arrested and booked on a felony charge anywhere in Massachusetts, they are fingerprinted by law. Those fingerprints are immediately forwarded to the Massachusetts State Police, which then submits them to the FBI. From there, the information flows directly to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. -expungema.org

Pittsfield Police or any other municipality in The Berkshires do not have to make a single phone call. It happens automatically.

What makes this especially alarming to immigration advocates is what happens next. Even if your charges are later dropped or dismissed, that arrest can still sit on your FBI record with no notation that the case ended in your favor. As far as the federal database is concerned, the arrest happened, and ICE can act on it.

Statewide, the numbers paint a striking picture. More than 7,000 people have been arrested by ICE in Massachusetts since President Trump's second term began. Nearly half of them, 46 percent, had no criminal record at all. They were detained solely for being in the country without legal status. -wbur.org

Massachusetts lawmakers are now pushing legislation that would place new limits on how ICE can operate in the state, including banning warrantless arrests at courthouses. But the fingerprint pipeline between local police and federal immigration agents remains in place, and there is currently no state law that changes it.

For immigrants living in Berkshire County, that means a run-in with local police, even one that goes nowhere in court, could have consequences that follow them for the rest of their lives.