Public Comment: Four Good Reasons for Amherst to Adopt ICE Accountability Resolution

The following public comment was submitted to the Amherst Town Council for their meeting on February 23, 2026

I am writing in support of the resolution that will come before you this evening, calling upon state, county, and local officials to hold accountable federal agents who violate the law in our state, to investigate them and, if they are found to have committed crimes under Massachusetts law, to prosecute them.

In the current environment, in which people are being dragged from the streets, from their cars, their homes, their schools and colleges, and their workplaces, it is not enough for state law enforcement to simply keep their distance from federal enforcement operations, effectively allowing them free rein. Our state needs to work more actively to keep its residents safe and to uphold the constitutional rights that protect our democracy.

Why is it important for Amherst to pass this resolution at this time?


First, it not merely symbolic: it calls for action on the part of our state, county, and municipal officials that can make a real difference in the lives of our residents, many of whom are in crisis, afraid to make themselves visible, let alone speak up, for fear that they will become targets. It is our responsibility to speak out on behalf of our neighbors who cannot do so in this climate. 

Second, Amherst can set an example. As the first town in the Commonwealth to pass such a resolution, we can inspire other towns and cities to follow suit, leaving our elected officials in no doubt as to the will of the people. 

Third, despite the current administration’s insistence that federal immigration enforcement agents have total immunity, however unconstitutional their actions may be, they are wrong. Combined with grassroots action, legal pushback has been successful in protecting free speech and halting arbitrary abductions, detentions, and deportations. And a proliferation of lawsuits at the state level can have a significant deterrent effect. 

Fourth, our cultural and demographic diversity is under threat. Sixteen percent of Amherst residents are foreign-born, and the presence of UMass and the two colleges contributes to this diversity. But the current administration’s nativist and white supremacist agenda is facing us with an existential challenge, both for the freedom of speech that is one of our most sacred defining characteristics and the very ability of international students and faculty to continue to live, to work, to study in, even to visit our town. 

Nationally and locally, the threat of expulsion, detention, and deportations of international students and faculty who speak out against administration policies have had a chilling effect on free speech. Here in Amherst, enrollments of international students and faculty are down, international employees have lost their visa status and their jobs. Graduate students, some of whom are married with children, have been threatened with deportation before their studies are completed and have been forced to self-deport. Visiting artists and scholars are having their visas delayed or denied or are deciding that they simply cannot take the risk of coming here. 

While passing this resolution today cannot directly redress every one of these outrages, it is an important step in the struggle to uphold everything we hold dear. Heartfelt thanks to its councilor co-sponsors and to the community that has rallied to support it.

Josna Rege is a resident of Amherst’s District One