ICE Enforcement Surge Detains Dozens Across New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fall River, Massachusetts

ICE agents began a multi-day enforcement surge across southeastern Massachusetts on Monday, September 22, 2026, first hitting New Bedford and Dartmouth before expanding to Fall River by late Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday afternoon, immigration advocates counted at least 34 arrests, with agents stopping people on Route 140, at Price Rite, Market Basket, multiple Cumberland Farms locations, Dartmouth Mall, and near restaurants, churches, and schools. Immigration attorneys said agents appeared to be racially profiling rather than executing targeted warrants — detaining a father whose 8-year-old son was left waiting at school for pickup, a parent with a one-month-old infant at home, and workers en route to New Bedford Harbor fish-processing plants. Attorney Ondine Galvez Sniffin said, 'They're fishing. Unless you consider targeting brown people [to be] targeted enforcement.' New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell called it 'an arbitrary sweep of people, some of whom appear to actually be documented,' while attorneys filed at least 25 habeas corpus petitions, with courts granting same-day stay orders blocking transfers out of the district. No advance notice was given to state or local officials.