Homeland Security Investigations searched a Lesley University dorm early Thursday for a matter “not related” to immigration. The lack of information over the course of the day about federal action in Cambridge as well as city police involvement concerned one city councillor.
“Our neighbors deserve to know exactly who was involved in this operation, what legal authority they were operating under, and whether our police department maintained the boundaries our community has demanded,” City Councillor Ayah Al-Zubi said.
Under the Trump administration, Ayah Al-Zubi continued, “we have seen ICE and its subagencies, including Homeland Security Investigations, increasingly blur the lines between criminal investigations and immigration enforcement as a pretext for deportations. We do not trust this administration to act in good faith, and we will not allow our local police to become tools of Trump’s mass deportation agenda.”
Toward the end of the business day, Cambridge Police Department Public Information Officer Robert Reardon said that HSI called in city officers to help execute their search warrant. One supervisor and three detectives from CPD were on the scene, he confirmed.
School responds; ICE doesn’t
Lesley University President Janet Steinmayer emailed a statement about the action in late morning: “Federal law enforcement executed a search warrant on campus in connection with an investigation of a Lesley community member by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. … The search warrant was related to criminal conduct and was not related to an immigration matter.”
President Steinmayer also noted that “Lesley has very limited information due to the ongoing nature of this federal legal proceeding.” The university president added, “The individual has been removed from campus and will not be in contact with any member of the Lesley community pending completion of the investigation.”
An ICE spokesperson said she could not provide further details about what she described as an ongoing investigation.
Cambridge’s Welcoming Community Ordinance
With so little information available, Councillor Al-Zubi filed a public records request with Cambridge police asking whether the CPD coordinated with federal agents and whether a Cambridge resident ended up in federal custody.
“Core information—such as the identity of the federal agency, the nature of the warrant and the extent of CPD’s participation—is necessary to evaluate adherence to the Welcoming Community Ordinance and should be public record,” Al-Zubi wrote in her letter.
Cambridge’s Welcoming Community Ordinance, passed in 2020, limits how city police can cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and related agencies but distinguishes between criminal actions, such as on Thursday, and immigration issues.
Under the ordinance, Cambridge police may not participate in federal immigration enforcement operations except in limited circumstances, such as providing traffic control for officer safety, al-Zubi noted in a press release about her records request.
Cambridge police officials have said that federal agents usually notify the department when they conduct enforcement actions in the city. Police “hope that [agents] let us know first, but if people see [ICE agents], we want to know,” CPD Commissioner Christine Elow told councillors last September.
How it went down
A man wearing gear branded “HSI Special Agent” in a Jeep Rubicon with tinted windows was seen outside of the university residence in question at 7:40 a.m. Upon being photographed and asked to lower his window, the agent drove away.
Two law enforcement personnel in plainclothes were seen inside the 68 Oxford St. residence hall known as Kris House. The agents said they had a judge’s warrant to be there and that the home had only a single occupant when they entered. They did not clarify whether that person was the subject of HSI’s investigation. Lesley students are on winter break, but resume classes Jan. 26.
According to agents on the scene and a person reached by phone at HSI, the search warrant related to child safety.
Lesley public safety has an office right across the street from Kris House. More than two hours after the search began, school officers there said they were still unaware that federal agents were searching a dorm nearby. Asked if it is Lesley policy to cooperate with federal law enforcement, the officers declined to comment.
Additional reporting by Marc Levy.
