Now that Burlington Town Meeting has voted to challenge the relocation of a federal immigration-enforcement office to town, a special committee will audition lawyers to be plaintiff's counsel in what could be a Burlington vs. Burlington lawsuit.
Town Meeting voted, 64 to 26, last week to contest the decision by Burlington's building inspector that allowed the federal project to proceed, setting up a lawsuit in which Burlington taxpayers would foot the bills for both sides. The vote did not commit Town Meeting to the lawsuit, but instead approved the hiring of special counsel, at up to $10,000, to advise Town Meeting on how or if it should proceed with the case.
Moderator Phillip A. Gallagher said Thursday that he had contacted two lawyers who have worked with Town Meeting in the past - C. Peter R. Gossels and Gary S. Brackett - on cases in which Burlington's legislative body, Town Meeting, has challenged its executive branch. If Gossels and Brackett are interested, the two will appear before the moderator and an 11-member advisory committee to present their assessments of the case and their strategies for how to proceed.
The committee and the moderator will then pick one of the lawyers to attend the next Town Meeting session, Jan. 28, and present their appeal to the full body, Gallagher said. Town Meeting will then decide if it's worth proceeding with the lawsuit in an attempt to stop US Immigration and Customs Enforcement from operating a Burlington office with holding cells for the same-day processing of alleged illegal immigrants.
"It is important to know that our intent is not - I repeat not - to put the town at financial risk," said Lou Rubino, a Town Meeting member who has organized the opposition to the immigration facility, in an appeal at Wednesday night's Special Town Meeting. "We are looking for a place-holder so we can interview attorneys, evaluate our chance of success, and get an estimate of what it would cost to move forward."
The roughly 40,000-square-foot immigration facility is located at 10 New England Executive Park, between Burlington Mall and Lahey Clinic, and will serve as New England headquarters for Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Detention and Removal Operations. The building will mostly be office space for the approximately 100 federal agents and 20 support staff who will work there, but it will also include four holding rooms of about 250 square feet each, to be used in the same-day processing of people who have been accused of violating immigration laws.
About 10 to 15 people will be processed each day at the facility. They will remain in Burlington for an hour or two each before being transported to county jails to await the handling of their immigration-law cases, immigration officials have said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement obtained a certificate of occupancy for most of the building on Dec. 6 and plans to seek a full occupancy certificate shortly, pending the completion of work on the holding rooms and the secure portion of the facility.
Town Meeting voted to challenge the ruling by Burlington's building inspector, John Clancy, that the immigration facility is primarily an office use, and that the holding rooms represent an accessory use to the primary office function. Although the town counsel concurred with Clancy's ruling, opponents at Town Meeting disagree with that interpretation of the zoning bylaws.
At Wednesday's session, Town Meeting members overwhelmingly spoke against the immigration facility, but not all agreed that the legal case would be financially worthwhile.
"I don't think there's a single person in here who's psyched to have people in shackles and handcuffs parading through town," said Christopher P. Murphy, a Town Meeting member. "But if $10,000 leads to $250,000 for a case that I don't think we're ever going to win, then I'm not in favor of this."
Some Town Meeting members were also concerned about exposing the town to an additional lawsuit. Before the meeting, a lawyer for property owner Robert Murray sent a strongly worded, five-page letter advising Burlington of the "potential consequences" of trying to thwart the Immigration and Customs Enforcement project.
But resident Bill McDade urged Town Meeting not to be swayed by matters of finance.
"You don't get into a fight on the basis of what it would cost you," he said. "You get into a fight on the basis of whether you're right or wrong."
