CSSJC Will Co-sponsor Town Council Resolution Condemning ICE

Report on the Meeting of the Amherst Community Safety and Social Justice Committee, February 11, 2026  

The meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.  

Present 
Debora Ferreira (Co-Chair), Allegra Clark (Co-Chair), Everald Henry, Erica Piedade, Lissette Paredes. Two vacancies.

Staff:  Assistant DEI Director Philip Avila. 

At their meeting on Feb. 11, the Community Safety and Social Justice Committee (CSSJC) voted unanimously to be community sponsors for a Town Council resolution condemning Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions across Massachusetts and calling on state and local officials to preserve evidence and begin conducting investigations into unlawful conduct by federal agents and officeholders within their jurisdictions.  

The resolution, entitled “Town of Amherst Resolution Calling for Federal Immigration Agents to be Held Accountable for Violations of Massachusetts Criminal Law,” also calls on “Governor Maura Healey to immediately cease all cooperation agreements with ICE, including ending the 287(g) agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections and any informal agreements that may be in place.” 

Allegra Clark presented the resolution to the group after it was approved by the Governance, Organization and Legislation Committee (GOL) of the town council on Feb. 10. 

“I don’t think it’s just words. I think that there would be the ability to make the words happen and I think there would be… interest from some of the parties named, at least, to do so. Or…[they have] already… expressed some level of agreement with some of the principles of what’s written,”  said Clark.  

Those named in the resolution include “Attorney General Andrea Campbell, Hampshire County 

District Attorney David E. Sullivan, and Amherst Police Chief Gabriel Ting.” Clark added that DA Sullivan had released a statement Jan. 28, stating, “Any violations of state law committed against the people of the Northwestern District will be thoroughly and impartially investigated, and, if warranted by the evidence, prosecuted in a court of law.” 

The resolution is now on track to come before the Town Council at its February 23 meeting. 

Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS) Updates:  
The CSSJC is continuing to advocate for the town to increase funding for Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service (CRESS), Amherst’s alternative public safety department.  

According to Avila, Town Manager Paul Bockelman asked that all departments produce a budget outlook with a ten percent reduction in funding. It is unclear how much budgets will actually be reduced as Bockelman has until May 1 to present a budget to the town council.  

Everald Henry said he is currently drafting a letter to the town manager advocating for the town to fund two responder positions currently frozen in the FY26 budget.  

“We have to figure out how to navigate around the money issue,” Henry said.  

Debora Ferreira felt that it was “giving [the town manager] a pass” by referring to CRESS’s budget struggle as a funding issue, calling it “targeted” and “intentional” in an effort to make the department falter.  

“If they’re framing this as a budget issue, we should attack it as a budget issue,” Henry said.  

CRESS currently has five active responders with the recent addition of Responder Terrell “TJ” Jones. The sixth position is expected to be filled in the coming weeks. With assistance from state grants, the department has also hired Dan Garcia as Program Manager. The grant funding will end June 30, 2026, meaning that CRESS will need to find an alternative funding source to retain his position as they apply for more grants.  

CSSJC also plans to advocate for the addition of an assistant director to assist CRESS Director Camille Theriaque. 

“It’s critical that we put in about hiring…not through grants but to actually have a budget for an assistant director,” Ferreira said. “We saw what happened before in terms of…if she needs to do a leave of absence or something like that, then, you’re back in the same situation where you have to go [create] a leadership team…That’s nonsense.”  

Youth Empowerment:  
Clark read aloud an email from Bockelman in response to a request for an update about the establishment of a youth empowerment center as recommended by the Community Safety Working Group (CSWG).  In it, Bockelman confirmed that $455,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding remains designated for youth empowerment. In 2025, Bockelman placed the remaining ARPA funds in “free cash” to protect the money from being reclaimed by the Trump administration. Because the funding is now free cash, spending requires a vote from the Town Council.  

Bockelman encouraged the committee to help identify potential locations for a center and mentioned the Wildwood Elementary School as a potential space, as it is expected to be vacant by the start of the Fall 2026 school year.  

“Now that we know there is a process of how to get it from what it is to what it could be, that’s very helpful. I don’t necessarily think that that may be the best option, but it’s easily accessible on, public transportation. It’s not very far from downtown,” Henry said.  

Bockelman added that the town council did not put youth empowerment in his goals for 2026, which Ferreira called “a problem.” 

Henry agreed that youth empowerment “doesn’t seem…paramount” to the Town Manager’s goals, but added that the committee is still able to raise the issue.  

“I’m not saying that it’s not a priority for the town, but it doesn’t seem… to be in the top list of things to do…We should keep him at his word to, say, if we have solutions, bring them to him. So let’s find solutions and have them say no, because again, that’s what he did. He invited us to come up with ideas and solutions. And if we do that and they just blatantly say no, then we know for sure, this is a deliberate act on the part of the town in terms of youth empowerment,” Henry said.  

Erica Piedade added that youth empowerment could be “folded into his goals,” which the council voted in November 2025 to reaffirm their commitment to fulfilling the CSWG’s recommendations.  

Ferreira expressed concerns that the money said to be allocated for youth empowerment could be used for other projects. She added that the town originally designated $500,000 for youth empowerment, but spent $45,000 for a feasibility study from the Donahue Institute.Ferreia said that CSSJC received confirmation from Bockelman that the study was conducted nor  any information about the study.

“It’s like the sooner it’s actually earmarked for the youth empowerment center, that’s when I’ll sleep well at night…And, yeah, it’s not a lot of money. We know that they’re going to have to have more money than this $455,000. But, that’s money that was already set aside for it…And so they need to apply it to the youth empowerment center. And we need to make sure that that’s what happens…Right now, I’m…still concerned, very concerned,” Ferreira said.  

“I think we can’t just consistently talk about it, but we have to be more proactive. It shouldn’t be our responsibility…to take the lead on this. But it is obvious that we’re going to have to do some legwork to make this happen,” Henry said.  

Bockelman also noted the youth programming being done by the town’s Department of Recreation, DEI office and CRESS, including the award-winning Morning Movement and Mentoring Program. 

In response, Ferreira said that she is concerned with APD’s involvement in the program.  

“I actually got some community members who contacted me…very concerned about…how the police are interacting with our young people…” 

In his update to the CSSJC, Avila described some of the DEI department’s upcoming youth programming events including a Reality Fair on Wednesday, Feb. 25 and a youth entrepreneurship program running weekly from Saturday, March 7 through Saturday, April 4 at the Bangs Community Center.  

Resident Oversight Board (ROB) 
The bylaw to establish a resident oversight board (ROB) to monitor complaints against APD and CRESS is currently at GOL, with the goal of presenting either the review or an investigatory model of the bylaw to the town council in April.  

Ferreira suggested the committee send a letter to GOL emphasizing the years-long wait for a ROB to be established. “They’ve [Amherst] wasted all this time, and they’re still wasting time, so we need to make sure that they really understand that this needs to happen.” 

“If we reach out to a few town councilors and are like, listen, we’re keeping an eye on this, and…ROB needs to be established, obviously, with the investigatory model too, we need to say what model we’re looking for because,if we don’t mention everything that we want… it’s going to be another reason for them to just decide otherwise… so we need to keep the pressure going and the pressure on.”  

Statement in Support of Gil’s Auto Body:  
Clark presented a statement, written in collaboration with the Human Rights Commission (HRC), offering support to Gil’s Auto Body, a BIPOC-owned business formerly located in Amherst that recently received a racist and threatening note. According to the Hampshire Gazette, “Last Friday [Jan.30], staff members at the auto garage came in at 8 a.m. to find a note posted on their door. The one-page letter calls [owners] Despiau and Rivas dehumanizing terms and tells them to “go back to your ghetto,” referring to Springfield and Holyoke. The author concludes the three-paragraph letter with a threat to visit the business if they do not leave Belchertown. It is signed “Your White Superiors.’” 

It appears a police investigation is ongoing.  

The statement “acknowledge[s] this is a hate crime,” and condemns “the perpetrator’s behavior and actions towards any and all members of our BIPOC community, no matter the distance they’ve gone from our town.” 

“We acknowledge our own limitations as Amherst-based commissions, but we will utilize our position and resources within our jurisdiction to spread the word and any call to action to all residents of the area, including our town officials. Discussions within the commissions have already occurred and will continue until we have exhausted all possible options.”  

The motion to support the statement passed unanimously with one amendment which revises the final sentence from “The town of Amherst is at your disposal,” to instead only promise the support of the CSSJC and HRC rather than all of town leadership.  

“We just wanted to…say that what happened is not okay and…acknowledge that this happened and that whatever we’re able to do to support, whether it’s just…telling people ‘hey, this is a local BIPOC owned business, go patronize it,” Clark said.  

CSSJC Retreat:  
The CSSJC is hosting a committee retreat on March 21 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Bangs Community Center.  

Committee members are hoping to develop measurable goals to work more effectively with the town council and their town council liaison in order to fulfill CSWG goals as outlined in their committee charge. 

Piedade described a mapping activity that will be done to outline steps towards achieving committee goals.  

“It’s a lot of brainstorming… it really takes a look at what’s our end goal and how do we actually get there with all the different steps and breaking it down as concrete as possible. “ Piedade said.  “I think it was one of the things that we really felt was critical, that…the Town Council is constantly reminded about their commitment, their resolution, their vote… to support this and not just when we come up in front of them.” 

The retreat is open to the public.  

Next Meeting:  
The next meeting of the CSSJC will be held on March 11, 2026.