Hanover Police Clarify Role in Immigration Enforcement

HANOVER—Hanover Police Chief Tim Kane addressed concerns about the department’s role in immigration enforcement during a recent Select Board meeting, clarifying that local officers are not responsible for enforcing federal immigration laws. His remarks came amid heightened public concern following increased immigration enforcement actions across Massachusetts and the nation.

Kane explained that state law and court rulings limit the ability of local police to detain individuals on behalf of federal immigration authorities, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He emphasized that local officers have no legal authority to act on civil immigration detainers, which are requests from ICE to hold individuals beyond their lawful detention period.

"First and foremost, immigration enforcement falls under the purview of federal authorities, not local law enforcement," Kane stated. "Knowing that most of these ICE operations are civil in nature, a majority of these interactions simply have civil detainers. There's nothing criminal involved when there's simply a civil detainer."

He further clarified that a judicially issued federal arrest warrant—which is different from a civil detainer—is required for local officers to take action.

"Should there be a judicially issued federal arrest warrant? That means that there is something far above the civil detainer, meaning that that individual has already been identified as committed a major crime. Usually it is a felony," Kane explained. "If that were the case, then local law enforcement really wouldn't have any choice. We'd have to treat every arrest warrant the exact same, whether it's a federal warrant or a local warrant."

Kane said that despite concerns, he has not seen any ICE operations occur within Hanover. He noted that he is in regular contact with other law enforcement officials and attends weekly meetings to stay informed.

"I think it's important for us to just really share with everybody what the law allows us to do and how we are restricted by the law," Kane said. "We don't see anything like this happening here yet, but there's always that potential that something we could see some immigration enforcement at some point in time."

The discussion also touched on ICE’s recent shift in enforcement strategies, including its approach to conducting operations near schools, places of worship, and shelters. Kane noted that while previous federal policy had classified these locations as “protected spaces,” those designations have now been rolled back.

"By that I mean if somebody was not a U.S. citizen and they were victimized, then they would more than likely withhold information or not even come forward at all to the police to report that they were victimized," Kane said. "That has been rescinded by the federal government to a certain extent."

Despite these changes, Kane reassured residents that the Hanover Police Department remains focused on community safety rather than immigration status.

"As it stands now, we are not being asked to conduct any immigration enforcement whatsoever," he said. "We cannot deter, impede, or obstruct any federal initiatives where they're moving forward with those types of activities. We cannot get in the way of it either."

Kane encouraged residents with concerns to reach out to the police department directly for clarification on policies.

"I hope this helps to ease the anxiety of those individuals that reached out to me and anybody else that may not have wanted to reach out to me," Kane said. "I'd be more than willing to take any questions from anybody in the town that might relate to this topic."

The Select Board did not take any action following Kane’s presentation, but the discussion provided a clearer understanding of the town’s role in immigration enforcement.

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