The Winthrop School Committee approved in general terms the system’s cooperation with a new state law designed to restrict the ability of federal immigration agents to detain people in public areas including school grounds.

The law, known as the Protect Act, requires all Massachusetts communities to implement some kind of policy toward local activity of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, and Winthrop’s school committee agreed Monday in a unanimous vote to comply.

In a brief explanation of her approach, the Winthrop superintendent, Lisa Howard, said the changes mean that her department will get more directly involved in such situations. That includes establishing an annual policy meeting between Winthrop school and police officials, and developing a clearer understanding of what kinds of warrants and orders allow federal agents onto school grounds, school officials said.

Although elements of the school department’s policy changes in response to the Protect Act are still being drafted, they generally will reflect the school system’s existing strong trust in the Winthrop police department, Ms Howard said. The policy will be “in line with what we have been doing because we have such a great police department, because we are so connected to them,” she said.

While the Protect Act is designed to deter federal ICE officials from entering schools and other places where the public gathers, Winthrop police have described a more cooperative approach. Winthrop’s police chief, John Goodwin, who retired effective this month, said earlier this year that he respects the job of ICE agents, accepts their general legitimacy, and doesn’t see value in directly trying to stop them.

ICE relationship

Addressing the matter in a May appearance on the WCAT program Winthrop and the World, Mr Goodwin said that his department does aim to keep track of any armed forces in town, to help protect public safety, and that his officers talk with ICE agents to help make sure they work from accurate information.

“We don’t have the authority to tell them not to come to town,” Mr Goodwin said of ICE officers. “That’s why we prefer to have a good working relationship, to limit the potential for violence, if they’re pursuing someone that is of criminal design, that might have arrest warrants.”

That distinction reflects a fundamental tension of the Protect Act, beyond the case of Winthrop. States have a limited legal ability to control or restrain federal agents, and the Protect Act aims to maximize local power in that relationship by asking communities to implement procedures and hurdles covering sensitive areas such as public schools, child care centers and health care facilities.

The Protect Act was approved by the Massachusetts state legislature in July, winning passage in the House by a 137-21 vote that included the support of Representative Jeffrey Turco of Winthrop, and in the Senate by a voice vote. Gov. Maura Healey signed it into law on Aug. 5.

Along with the rules for schools, the law aims to ban warrantless civil immigration arrests at state court houses, to forbid local police from questioning or arresting people based solely on suspected immigration violations, and to expand citizen rights to sue federal immigration officials.

Potential target

The state education department, in response to the law, ordered public school systems across Massachusetts to establish policies, by the beginning of the current school year, setting out their steps for handling interactions with federal immigration officers, including any of their requests for access to school grounds, students and their records. Massachusetts school districts appear to be overwhelmingly complying.

Winthrop, with a Latino population of 18 percent across the town and 26 percent in the schools, looms as a potential target for federal immigration enforcement. The town has had at least two incidents in the past two years – one in which two construction and painting workers were detained in an apparent case of wrong identity, and another in which a Guatemalan national living in Winthrop was arrested on rape charges.

Of all 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, Winthrop ranked second in its percentage growth of Latino residents between 2018 and 2023, second only to Nantucket, according to a Boston Globe analysis of federal data. And the Winthrop Town Council refused last year to join other nearby towns in condemning ICE behavior, arguing it would make the town a target of the agency.

Other nearby communities, including Revere, Lynn and Chelsea – where Gov. Healey signed the law – have described significant declines in student attendance due to deportations and fears of ICE. Winthrop, by comparison, has seen a steady increase in school enrollment, from 1,967 students about five years ago to 2,002 students in all grades this year, according to data cited by Ms Howard said.

The new students, the superintendent said, include people coming from surrounding communities that include Boston, Chelsea, Lynn, Saugus, Revere and Everett, and from countries that include Colombia, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, plus Poland, Philippines, Iraq, Algeria, Morocco and Switzerland. “That’s a lot of different countries,” Ms Howard said, “which brings a lot of new information into our schools, and new kids to meet other kids from other countries.”