Two protesters were arrested Wednesday during a public forum with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and an outspoken Massachusetts sheriff.
The office of Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson confirmed that deputies arrested two people they said caused a disturbance at a public forum. They were charged with trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, Hodgson's office said; the protesters' names have not been released.
Video from the FANG Collective, a group whose website says it "seeks to escalate resistance to the fracked gas industry while supporting other movements for justice," shows one of the protesters holding a banner reading "Bristol County End Your Agreements With ICE" as he was led out of the forum by deputies.
Although authorities have not released their names, a FANG Collective press release attributed quotes to both of them.
"All agreements between local law enforcement and ICE must end, as well as the detention and incarceration of our communities, if we want to truly end family separation," one of the suspects, identified only as Lee, said, according to the FANG Collective. "We must look beyond punitive measures and think critically about what community accountability could be if we ever want to end the cycles of violence that impact our most vulnerable communities."
"I am acting in support of the leadership of undocumented people here in Bristol County and everywhere, who resist the everyday surveillance and brutality of the detention and deportation industrial complex," the other suspect, identified as Max, said in the release.
Hodgson, a strong supporter of President Donald Trump who was sued after offering to send his inmates to build Trump's border wall, has long aligned himself with immigration officials. His office announced a partnership with ICE in 2017, and he has frequently taken a hard-line immigration stance in public debates.
