ICE Interacted With Cambridge Police at Least 16 Times Since January 2025

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement interacted with the Cambridge Police Department at least 16 times since January 2025, according to logs released by Police Commissioner Christine A. Elow.

The Thursday report details 11 interactions between CPD and ICE agents from September 2025 to February, adding to the five interactions CPD documented between January 2025 and August 2025.

The logs include the date of each interaction, the responding officer, and a brief description of the encounter — including three requests for information, seven inquiries about individuals in the department’s custody, and one arrest witnessed by a Cambridge officer.

In each documented instance in which ICE sought information about a person in CPD custody, officers declined to provide assistance, citing the city’s sanctuary ordinance.

One interaction on Oct. 10 involved a caller identifying himself as an ICE agent requesting information about Freydy R. Mejia, who had been arrested earlier that day for shoplifting. CPD did not provide information, the report stated.

Hours later, after Mejia was released on personal recognizance, ICE agents made contact with him outside the police station.

“Upon exit of 125 Sixth Street, he turned left, and ICE agents appeared to walk behind him. After about 10 steps he began to run, and a foot pursuit followed with Mr. Mejia and ICE agents,” an officer who observed the encounter wrote in the report.

ICE agents took Mejia into custody and appeared to take a picture with him in front of the police station shortly after his release. The agents then moved to the side of a Cambridge police vehicle and appeared to take another photo with Mejia. They left in a “dark SUV,” according to the Thursday report.

Mejia could not be reached for comment.

In another late-October interaction, ICE agents told officers they “may post a team outside of the station” in anticipation of an individual’s release from custody after CPD declined to provide information, according to the report. The report did not document an arrest in that case.

The report was released just hours after the city adopted stricter limits on federal immigration enforcement’s presence on city property.

An executive order signed Thursday by City Manager Yi-An Huang ’05 prohibits federal immigration agents from using city-owned property as “a staging area, processing location, operations base, or other supporting location.”

The order also requires the release of body-camera or surveillance footage in cases involving violence or property damage by federal officers.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at [email protected].