Several advocacy groups have sued the Boston police and school departments to find how much information they share with federal immigration officials.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, the Center for Law and Education, and Multicultural Education, Training, and Advocacy filed suit in Suffolk Superior Court on Thursday for details on how police and schools share student information with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The city has shared information about Boston Public School students involved in fights, disturbances or vandalism more than 100 times between 2014 and 2018 with the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, commonly known as BRIC. The agency includes an agent from the Department of Homeland Security.
David Carabin, assistant chief of the BRIC, said the unit doesn't work with federal authorities on immigration proceedings.
"ICE does not have access to a drop of data that sits within the Boston Police Department," Carabin said under questioning from city councilors during a hearing on grant funding on Thursday.
The school system has said it no longer shares such reports. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has said the school district never shared student information with federal authorities.
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Lawyers for Civil Rights has previously sued Boston Public Schools, alleging that a disagreement that started inside East Boston High School in 2015 ended with an immigration student deported.
Boston Public Schools denied those allegations.
Boston police have said that the department “has never knowingly participated in an intentional procedure of sharing student information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement...an agreement for something like this does not and would not ever exist.”
