NEW BEDFORD, MA — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained at least 31 people in southeastern Massachusetts since Monday, according to immigration lawyers in the region, as the agency stepped up activity in New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fall River.

Attorneys and advocates said the enforcement wave has unsettled families and workplaces across the area. They described parents taken while children were waiting to be picked up from school, workers on their way to fish processing plants, and others detained while driving or running errands.

Lawyers also said the operation appears to be affecting more than the people taken into custody. Residents are staying inside, children are fearful about school, and some businesses have closed temporarily as the region responds to the surge.

Attorneys say the detentions spread quickly from New Bedford to Fall River

Local immigration attorney Ondine G. Sniffin said the activity began Monday morning in New Bedford and Dartmouth before moving into Fall River late Tuesday and Wednesday. She said the pattern resembles enforcement operations seen elsewhere, with agents stopping people in public rather than focusing on one clearly identified target list.

Todd C. Pomerleau, another immigration lawyer, said the crackdown appears to have intensified sharply after signs of similar trends over the past year. He said it remains unclear exactly who was being singled out, aside from people in a particular part of Massachusetts.

Sniffin said agents did not seem to arrive with specific names in hand. Instead, she said, people in work vans, on street corners, or with darker skin were being stopped in what she described as racial profiling.

Families, schools, and workplaces feel the effects across the city

Advocates said the human toll has spread far beyond the arrests themselves. One family was left waiting when a father was taken while his 8-year-old son was at school expecting to be picked up, and another parent with a one-month-old baby at home was also detained, according to attorneys and community members.

People connected to fish processing plants near New Bedford Harbor were among those impacted, lawyers said, along with residents simply driving or going to the grocery store. Sniffin said the atmosphere has become so tense that many people are avoiding public places altogether.

Businesses have been affected as well. She said some shops remain closed, while families are keeping children home out of fear. Pomerleau said many in the community are deeply shaken, adding that some people may never fully recover from what they have experienced.

ICE declines to discuss the operation as community fear grows

An ICE spokesperson told Boston.com by email that the Department of Homeland Security does not discuss ongoing or future operations. The spokesperson also said ICE officers enforce immigration laws in all 50 states around the clock.

Community leaders said the lack of information has only added to the confusion. New Bedford Police Chief Jason Thody said ICE did not provide local police with specific locations, names of people being sought, or details about planned enforcement.

Thody said the police department received calls from a business owner asking for a vehicle to be towed and from another person reporting damage to a vehicle. He said the department will continue to respond to public safety calls and monitor information from residents and social media as activity unfolds in the city.

Rally at New Bedford City Hall draws activists and immigrant justice groups

The enforcement surge prompted a public response Tuesday, when activists gathered outside New Bedford City Hall for a rally that was captured in a video posted to social media. Organizers said the arrests are tearing at the city’s social fabric and have pushed families into crisis.

During the rally, Gretchen Baker-Smith of LUCE New Bedford, a community immigrant justice network, called the situation a life-and-death matter for the local immigrant community. She said the number of people taken in just two days has had a destabilizing effect on the city.

Community groups have since been working to spread word about ICE activity and to pool resources for rent and food assistance. Attorneys and advocates said the goal is to help families respond quickly when a detention happens and to keep neighbors informed about what is happening around them.

Lawyers file habeas petitions while officials call for more transparency

Immigration attorneys moved quickly to challenge the detentions in federal court, filing habeas petitions for people taken into custody. The petitions are intended to question whether an ICE detention is lawful.

Pomerleau said the effort has become an alliance of lawyers working with the community to identify who was detained so court filings can be submitted quickly. Sniffin said that within hours of the petitions being filed, a court granted stay orders that blocked ICE from moving the detainees outside the jurisdiction.

Attorneys said they have filed at least 25 habeas petitions so far through the Habeas Project of New England, a Massachusetts Law Reform Institute program that pairs detained people with volunteer lawyers. Heather Perez Arroyo, a senior attorney with the institute, said the group will keep taking ICE to court when it believes the law has been broken.

State leaders connect the enforcement wave to wider concerns

The surge in activity has also drawn attention from state officials. Gov. Maura Healey called on ICE to release information about who was arrested and why, saying the overwhelming majority of those affected are hardworking residents who pay taxes.

Healey said the current approach reflects Donald Trump’s immigration policy and argued it is not working. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey also weighed in on social media, calling for ICE to be abolished, while state Rep. Chris Hendricks urged people to report possible misconduct.

Sniffin said the latest operation brought back memories of earlier immigration raids in Massachusetts, including the Allston Car Wash raid, as well as actions in Chelsea and Revere. She also said ICE activity was seen in New Bedford in 2025, and she compared the current wave with the 2007 raid at the Michael Bianco factory, when about 360 workers were arrested.