Antonia Lucas told GBH News that she and her partner, Miguel Ixcuna, were driving home from a nonprofit around noon on Monday when two vehicles boxed their car in, one in front and one behind. A man tapped on the window and asked for her identification. She gave it. Then agents opened the driver’s door and pulled Ixcuna out. Their daughters, ages three and nine, were in the back seat.
More than two dozen people were detained at roadside stops across New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fall River on Monday and Tuesday. Governor Healey is demanding answers. New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell says the city got no warning and that he has seen no indication anyone detained had a record beyond motor vehicle infractions.
Almost every question people are asking about this has a legal answer, and most of the answers are not the ones people expect. Here they are.
What happened
In a statement issued Tuesday, Governor Healey said ICE “reportedly arrested at least a dozen individuals in New Bedford” on Monday. “Many of those arrested have lived here for many years and have families here,” she said. “They were on their way to work at a fishing plant, supermarket and other key industries for the region. We’ve heard of one father who was arrested and has several children at home, including a one month old baby. We heard about an 8-year-old boy who was waiting for his father to pick him up from school, but he had been arrested.”
Her demand was narrow and specific: “Who have they arrested and why?”
GBH News reported that more than two dozen people were detained at roadside stops across the three communities on Monday and Tuesday. At least four of those arrested Monday worked in fish houses.
Can ICE pull a car over
Yes, on a lower showing than most people assume, and the authority does not come from traffic law.
Under 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a), an immigration officer may arrest without a warrant if the officer “has reason to believe that the alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any such law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.” The arrested person “shall be taken without unnecessary delay for examination before an officer of the Service.”
A vehicle stop is still a Fourth Amendment seizure, and it still requires reasonable suspicion. The governing case is United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873 (1975), where the Supreme Court held that roving patrols may stop a vehicle only on specific articulable facts supporting a reasonable suspicion that it contains people unlawfully in the country, and that apparent ethnicity alone is not enough.
The practical difficulty is that the remedy for a bad stop is thin. The exclusionary rule is generally not available in civil removal proceedings, so a stop that would sink a criminal prosecution usually does not stop a deportation.
The warrant is probably not a warrant
This is the single most useful thing for anyone in one of these communities to understand.
ICE forms I-200 and I-205 are administrative warrants signed by an immigration officer, not by a judge. They authorize agents to arrest the named person. They do not authorize entry into a home. Only a judicial warrant, signed by a judge and naming the place to be searched, does that.
Which means a person who does not open the door has not broken any law. A person standing on a public street or sitting in a car on a public way is in a different position, because no warrant of any kind is needed to approach someone in public.
What Massachusetts can and cannot do about it
Healey’s statement asks ICE for information. It does not order anything, and that is not an oversight.
Massachusetts law limits what state and local officers may do for federal immigration authorities. In Lunn v. Commonwealth, 477 Mass. 517 (2017), the Supreme Judicial Court held that Massachusetts court officers have no authority to hold a person in custody solely on a federal civil immigration detainer after the state case ends. That remains the law.
What no state law can do is prevent federal officers from making federal arrests. The Supremacy Clause settles that. So the state’s tools here are information, support services and political pressure, which is exactly the set Healey reached for.
ICE also has no legal obligation to notify local police before an operation. Mayor Mitchell’s complaint that it failed to do so is a complaint about practice and comity, not about a violated rule.
What happens to someone after the arrest
- Processing. The person is taken to an ICE office, fingerprinted and assigned an alien registration number, the A-number. That number is how anyone finds them afterward.
- Detention. Massachusetts arrestees frequently go to the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, and transfers out of state happen fast, sometimes within days.
- Bond, or not. Some people may ask an immigration judge for bond. Others fall under the mandatory detention provision, 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c), which the Supreme Court held in Jennings v. Rodriguez, 583 U.S. 281 (2018), does not carry an implicit right to periodic bond hearings.
- Removal proceedings. A notice to appear, then hearings in immigration court, which is part of the Justice Department rather than the judiciary.
One constitutional limit is worth knowing. Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001), holds that detention after a final removal order cannot be indefinite where removal is not reasonably foreseeable. It does not help someone arrested on Monday.
There is no public defender in immigration court
This is the gap that does the most damage and the one least understood.
Under 8 U.S.C. § 1362, a person in removal proceedings has the privilege of being represented by counsel “at no expense to the Government.” Removal is a civil proceeding, so there is no Sixth Amendment right to appointed counsel and no CPCS equivalent. A person who cannot afford a lawyer, and cannot find a nonprofit with capacity, appears alone.
That is why detention matters so much beyond the detention itself. A detained person, transferred out of state, with a one-month-old at home, is trying to find and pay an immigration lawyer from a facility in another state.
What to do in the first hours
- Write down the A-number. Everything downstream depends on it. Without it, families search by name and date of birth in ICE’s online detainee locator and often come up empty.
- Do not sign anything. Stipulated removal forms waive the right to a hearing. Signing is common and is usually irreversible.
- Say nothing about immigration status. The right to remain silent applies. Statements about where someone was born or how they entered become evidence.
- Get a lawyer before a bond hearing. Bond is often the single decision that determines whether a case can realistically be fought.
- Ask if you are free to leave. If the answer is yes, that is the end of a consensual encounter.
What is not yet known
ICE has not publicly identified those arrested or stated the basis for the stops. Whether anyone detained had a prior removal order, a criminal record, or a pending application has not been reported. Mayor Mitchell’s statement that he saw no indication of records beyond motor vehicle infractions is his characterization and not a confirmed accounting. We have not seen any charging document or arrest report.
Can ICE stop a car in Massachusetts?
Yes. A stop is a Fourth Amendment seizure requiring reasonable suspicion under United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, and 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a) permits warrantless arrest where an officer has reason to believe a person is unlawfully present and likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained.
Is an ICE warrant a real warrant?
ICE administrative warrants are signed by an immigration officer, not a judge, and do not authorize entry into a home. Only a judicial warrant does.
Can Massachusetts stop ICE from operating here?
No. State law limits what state and local officers may do to assist, and Lunn v. Commonwealth bars holding someone solely on a civil immigration detainer, but the state cannot prevent federal officers from making federal arrests.
Does ICE have to tell local police first?
No. There is no legal requirement of advance notice to a city or its police department.
Is there a public defender in immigration court?
No. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1362 a person may be represented at no expense to the government. Removal is civil, so no counsel is appointed.
How do I find someone who was detained?
Through ICE’s online detainee locator, using the A-number if you have it, or name, date of birth and country of birth. Transfers between facilities, including out of state, can happen within days.
Governor Healey’s quoted statement from the Commonwealth’s press release, “Governor Healey Demands Answers After Mass ICE Arrests in New Bedford,” mass.gov, September 22, 2026. The account of the Lucas and Ixcuna stop, and the figure of more than two dozen detained across New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fall River, from GBH News, reporting by Sarah Betancourt, September 22, 2026. Mayor Jon Mitchell’s statements as reported September 22, 2026. Statutory text of 8 U.S.C. § 1357(a) read at law.cornell.edu. Citations verified: United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873 (1975); Lunn v. Commonwealth, 477 Mass. 517 (2017); Jennings v. Rodriguez, 583 U.S. 281 (2018); Zadvydas v. Davis, 533 U.S. 678 (2001). ICE has not publicly identified those arrested or stated the basis for the stops. General information about immigration law, not legal advice, and anyone facing removal should consult an immigration attorney.