Records: West Springfield police partnered with ICE division

WEST SPRINGFIELD — West Springfield Police are part of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement task force, according to documents obtained by The Shoestring. 

In November 2024, Jay Gearing, West Springfield’s police chief, signed a memorandum of understanding between his department and Homeland Security Investigations, which together with Enforcement and Removal Operations is one of ICE’s two divisions. The agreement is preceded by one signed by former police chief G. Paul Connor dated June 2024. 

In a phone interview, Gearing said West Springfield police have not been engaged in any immigration enforcement. He said that if they had been, it wouldn’t have gone unnoticed, citing the fact that students in the city’s school district speak over 50 different languages. 

West Springfield is a diverse city. In 2020, for example, only three communities in the United States had more refugee resettlements per capita, according to a report from APM Research Lab and America Amplified. From 2022 to 2024, the number of English Language learners enrolled in West Springfield schools doubled. 

In September of this year, West Springfield Public Schools Executive Director for Communication Kerry Martins told The Reminder that she did not believe a recent uptick in absenteeism was attributable to fears of deportation among the city’s notable immigrant population. 

Homeland Security Investigations is the directorate within ICE responsible for investigating transnational crime and trade violations. It is distinct from Enforcement Removal Operations, which is the arm of ICE that handles all “identification, arrest, detention and removal of aliens who are subject to removal or are unlawfully present in the U.S.” 

While the memorandum of understanding that West Springfield signed does not allow local police officers administrative immigration enforcement powers, it does require Westside cops designated as customs officers to “follow HSI directives and instructions when utilizing enforcement authority conveyed by HSI.”

Under the Trump administration, these directives do not exclude immigration enforcement. Homeland Security Investigations officers are mandated to make “collateral arrests” of immigrants who aren’t the target of a deportation operation, despite federal judges ruling the practice is illegal. The result: about a third of the more than 65,000 people detained by ICE are being held on civil immigration violations, according to CBS News. Prior to Trump taking office, only 858 people were detained on civil violations, CBS found. 

A 2019 report by several organizations including the National Immigration Law Center concluded that under Trump’s first administration, HSI agents were “increasingly complicit in round-ups fueled by racial profiling, sham investigations that purport to involve child welfare but are intended to create fear among children’s loved ones and sponsors, and increased aggressive workplace raids that leave communities traumatized.” Last month, The New York Times published several investigations that found HSI agents had been pulled away from their typical duties, including investigating human smuggling and sex trafficking, to be redeployed to Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Title 19 of U.S. Code 1401 gives ICE authority to cross-designate other federal, state, and local law enforcement officers to investigate and enforce customs laws. It serves a different purpose than controversial 287(g) agreements, which allows ICE to deputize law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws. The only Massachusetts law enforcement agency with an active 287(g) agreement with ICE is the state Department of Corrections.

Gearing told The Shoestring that West Springfield’s agreement was still active, but it had been entered into as a “one off” so that Westside could get access to Homeland Security Investigations resources he said they needed in order to deal with alleged drug trafficking at a hotel on Riverdale Street. He said no collaboration had occurred between West Springfield and the Department of Homeland Security since late last year. 

Gearing said he could not recall the name of the hotel, or even if an arrest had been made. The Shoestring could not identify any news media, press releases, arrest logs, or federal court cases in U.S. District in Springfield between August and December of 2024 matching a description of the operation Gearing described. 

The memorandum of understanding was approved by Gearing, as well as Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael Krol. Krol is an executive board member of the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a collaboration between federal, state, and local law enforcement created by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. West Springfield PD is a participating agency. 

In addition to the HSI agreement, West Springfield has signed agreements with the United States Marshals Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency. A 2024 Department of Justice press release credits West Springfield as a participating agency in the joint investigation that led to the arrest of Pittsfield High School’s dean for alleged cocaine trafficking.