BOSTON — Local advocates urged Massachusetts lawmakers to turn up the resistance to the Trump administration’s “all-out assault” on immigrants in the state, calling on officials to create more legal protections as federal officials promise to carry out mass deportations all across the country.

Immigrant rights groups gathered Wednesday to call on lawmakers to advance two bills that would largely limit interactions between local police and federal immigration authorities and create a taxpayer-funded account to finance legal services for migrants facing deportations.

Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a Marlboro Democrat, said undocumented immigrants, people with temporary protected status, and green card holders are all facing increased threats with Donald Trump serving a second term in the White House.

He is the lead author of the “Safe Communities Act,” legislation that would prevent law enforcement in Massachusetts from performing the functions of an immigration officer and bar courts and cops from questioning someone about their immigration status.

The proposal also prohibits police from initiating communications with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about someone’s pending or imminent release from jail for any other reason than the end of their criminal sentence.

Eldridge said the measure makes sure “that not one taxpayer dollar of Massachusetts taxpayers is being used for mass deportations.”

“We know what we’re up against. I know it’s a very dark moment,” he told a crowd of immigrants and advocates at the State House during the annual “Immigrants Day” hosted by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

Eldridge has long filed the legislation with little success. But he previously told the Herald he believes the bill may have a better chance of becoming law during the 2025-2026 legislative session with Trump back in Washington.

In the three months that Trump has returned to the White House, federal authorities have publicized a series of immigration raids across Massachusetts, including the arrest this week of an illegal immigrant facing multiple child sex crime charges in the state.

Congressional Republicans have also singled out Boston for the city’s immigration-related policies, including by summoning Mayor Michelle Wu to the U.S. Capitol to testify.

The growing spotlight on Massachusetts comes as the state is still spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the emergency shelter system, which houses both local and migrant homeless families with children and pregnant women.

Massachusetts Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Lauren Jones said the state has “long been a beacon of opportunity” and immigrants are a “cornerstone of our success” who account for roughly 20% of the workforce statewide.

“We are home to one of the most highly skilled foreign-born workforces in the nation. In fact, one in three immigrants arriving or living in our state holds a bachelor’s or advanced degree from abroad,” she said at the State House Wednesday.

Advocates with the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition also pushed lawmakers to pass legislation they dubbed the “Immigrant Legal Defense Act.”

The bill would create a public-private fund to “provide immigration legal services to eligible immigrants and refugees who lack access to legal representation and who are facing removal proceedings from the United States, especially those in federal immigration detention.” according to the bill text.

The money would be handed out to legal service providers through a competitive grant program run by the state-level Office for Refugees and Immigrants. The bill calls on the Legislature to fund the program through the state’s yearly budget.

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Executive Director Elizabeth Sweet said the measure would give immigrants “who are caught up in raids and deportation” a “fair chance” when they go to court.

“We’re here to say that immigrants are welcome in Massachusetts. That here, immigrants can pursue the true … American dream, and immigrants can create a home here in Massachusetts,” she said.

Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, a Springfield Democrat, said immigrants are what drive the hospitality industry, make sure the State House is cleaned in the evenings, support the tourism industry, and make up the workforce for app-based companies like Uber and DoorDash.

Gonzalez said immigrants “ain’t going back.”

“I know in scripture it says that if they slap you on the left side, turn the other cheek. We ain’t doing that no more. We are fighting. And forgive me reverends and pastors, we ain’t turning the other cheek because we ain’t going back,” he said.

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