Federal law enforcement agents stopped a vehicle near the corner of West Wyoming Avenue and Corey Street in Melrose at about 7 a.m. on Wednesday, November 4 and detained the person inside, according to a statement Mayor Jen Grigoraitis posted that day and updated Thursday. The city says it learned of the stop from a witness, understands it to have been “part of a targeted operation,” and was not told about it by any federal agency before or after it happened.
“Neither the Melrose Police Department nor the Mayor’s office were informed of this operation in advance or after the fact, and we are seeking additional information and context from federal law enforcement agencies,” the statement says. The city does not identify the agency involved, the person detained, or the reason for the stop, and says it does not know “the specific circumstances of or justifications for this detention.”
The mayor’s statement adds that “the City of Melrose does not cooperate or assist with federal immigration enforcement as a matter of local policy and state law,” and points residents to the city’s page of resources for immigrants. West Wyoming Avenue runs west from Main Street toward Wyoming Cemetery and the Stoneham line; Corey Street meets it a few blocks from the Wyoming Hill commuter rail station.
What the local policy says
The policy the mayor refers to is Melrose Police Department Policy 1.33, Immigration, first issued as a general order on March 1, 2017 and most recently revised on May 15, 2025 under Chief Kevin Faller. It is posted on the police department’s website and linked from the city’s immigrant resources page.
The policy states that immigration status “is not and shall not be a matter of police concern or subsequent enforcement action,” and that race, religion, immigration status and similar characteristics “have absolutely no bearing” on an officer’s decision to stop, detain or arrest anyone. It says residents should seek police help regardless of documentation status and that the department depends on immigrants who are victims of or witnesses to crime coming forward without fear.
Its legal section rests on the Supreme Judicial Court’s 2017 decision in Commonwealth v. Lunn, which the policy summarizes as holding that Massachusetts law gives police no authority to hold a person solely on a federal civil immigration detainer, because a detainer is an administrative request and not a judicial warrant, and that holding someone past their lawful release time on a detainer alone is an unlawful arrest under state law. The same section says officers may not obstruct or interfere with federal agents carrying out lawful duties, citing the federal statutes on conspiracy, impeding federal officers and obstruction of agency proceedings. In other words, Melrose police do not take part in civil immigration enforcement and do not hold people for it, and they also do not stand in the way of it.
Nothing in the policy requires federal agencies to notify the city when they operate in Melrose, and the mayor’s statement does not claim they were obliged to. It says only that they did not.
What state law says
The city’s resources page also describes the state’s PROTECT Act, which it says Governor Maura Healey signed on August 5, 2026. According to the city’s summary, the law prohibits most civil arrests, including immigration arrests, without a judicial warrant or court order inside public K-12 schools, licensed child care centers, health care facilities including the nonpublic areas of hospitals and nursing homes, state property and courthouses. It also lets parents arrange standby guardianship for their children in case they are detained or deported, requires employers to tell workers within 48 hours of receiving notice of a federal I-9 audit, and sets deadlines of 45 days, or 14 business days in urgent cases, for agencies to respond to U and T visa certification requests from crime victims. A public street is not one of the protected locations.
The page carries the attorney general’s guidance on interactions with federal immigration officers and the role of local police, with the city’s own caution that it is general information and not legal advice. It lists the ACLU and MIRA Coalition know-your-rights materials in several languages, the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network hotline at 617-370-5023 for reporting suspected ICE activity, the federal detainee locator for finding a family member in custody, and the Greater Boston Legal Services immigration unit at 617-371-1234 in Boston and 617-603-2700 in Cambridge. The city says it does not endorse any of the outside groups.
What is not known
As of Thursday the city had not said which agency made the stop, whether the person detained lives in Melrose, where they were taken, or whether the city has heard back from the federal government. The statement is the only official account; the police department has not issued its own. We have not confirmed the witness account independently. The mayor’s statement, dated November 4 and marked as updated November 5, is here. The city’s resources for immigrants are here and the police department’s immigration policy is here.
