ICE: School police are not tipping off agents

Federal immigration officials vehemently deny that Boston school police officers are tipping off ICE agents about illegal immigrants in classrooms by overusing the word “gang” in incident reports, directly rebutting concerns raised by civil rights advocates.

“The notion that ICE deportation officers initiate enforcement actions against students based solely on the use of any one word in a report is a baseless claim and totally without merit,” said Todd Lyons, deputy field office director with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, in a statement. “Under routine procedures, ICE deportation officers neither request nor have access to student records.”

Attorneys with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, Kids in Need of Defense, the Center for Law and Education and Multicultural Education and Advocacy Inc. recently filed a public records request seeking information as to whether Boston School Police were overusing the word “gang” in their reports.

The concerns were first published in the Herald yesterday.

The idea is that reports overusing words related to gang activity would eventually land in the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or BRIC, a fusion center created to reduce crime and prevent acts of terrorism. Once the reports get to the BRIC, ICE would be able to request the unredacted documents.

In the Dec. 20 public records request, civil rights attorneys objected to “Boston Public School personnel disclosing copies of student incident reports that contain personally identifiable information, in particular about students at East Boston High School, to the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, the Boston Police Department and ICE.”

Local authorities and ICE have thrown cold water on the assertion.

“Current ICE policy directs agency personnel to avoid conducting enforcement activities at sensitive locations unless they have prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official or in the event of exigent circumstances,” Lyons said. “The locations specified in the guidance include schools, places of worship and hospitals.”

ICE was initially unable to respond to requests for comment on the concerns because the federal government was shut down.