The Massachusetts State House is Willfully Empowering ICE
By Rhombus Ticks
Once upon a time there was a privacy bill that would stop ICE from using our private data to target us and drag us out of our homes into the middle of the winter night. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the State House; Mariano, thinks he knows better than you about your ability to do that; and has sent a unanimous senate privacy bill into a black hole well past the deadline to file to primary them. And this isn’t even the first time they’ve done it.
The Panel of Experts to whom this has been referred reminds me of the “Top Men” at the end of Indiana Jones who place the Ark of the Covenant into a large warehouse ala Warehouse 13 the Sci Fi show and then walk away like it never existed. In the last seven years, the senate has sent bill after bill to the House and the House has again and again proven to be where good ideas go to die. But this year, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
On September 25, 2025 the senate voted 40-0 (not 39-1 not 38-2, 4. 0.) and for four months the house has dithered waiting for the bill to be written on “Lemon Soaked Paper Napkins.” Bear in mind, that this was all while ICE was terrorizing our homes. This was just before they began murdering us. You would think that the equation would change after the blood spilled in Minnesota; but the only thing that seems to have changed is the Senator Olympia Snow style Concern-O-Meter went from “We’re get to it when we get to it” to “We take this seriously as we transfer it to a black hole.”
So what’s in S.2608? It bans the sale of personal data to ICE. Seems pretty straight forward, right? It gets better: No geolocation data to the feds; no status data to the feds; no biometric data to the feds, lets the Attorney General fine people who violate it $5000. (We’ll get to that in a moment and why it matters). What it doesn’t do is let a private person sue if she decides she doesn’t want to enforce the law. And to be fair, this is important because it means that the law definitely gets enforced and has no choke point on a rogue future AG that decides it doesn’t matter. The House version of the bill includes this feature. It’s a good idea. The ACLU formally likes the House version better.
But this does not exist in a vacuum.
The formal House position is that they like the Senate Bill; but they want to do even MORE. That’s the official line. And yet, the deeper I dug and the more I looked at what they were doing; I found troubling ties between Speaker Mariano, the Boston Chamber of Commerce and Big Tech. Think I’m kidding? Let’s see here….
Seven Years, Six Bills.
Format:
| Year | Bill # | Senate | House | How It Died |
| 2019 | S.120 | Introduced, hearing held Oct 2019 | Study order issued Feb 2020 | Never left committee |
| 2019-2020 | SD.341 | Introduced with private right of action | Died in committee | House opposition to private cause of action |
| 2021-2022 | S.2687 / H.4514 (MIPA) | Advanced out of Ways & Means | Study order issued Sept 2022 | House Healthcare Finance Committee killed it |
| 2024 | S.2770 / H.4632 | Committee report favorable (5-0) | “No further action taken” by Dec 31 | Died in House Ways & Means |
| 2025-2026 | S.2608 / H.4746 | Passed 40-0 (Sept 25, 2025) | Committee favorable (Nov 17, 2025), stalled in Ways & Means | CURRENT |
The first attempt at this was S.120 that passed the senate and referred to committee and sent into committee and never ONCE voted on by the house at large. Then SD 341 in2020 included this magical private right to action; and low and behold … .it DIED in committee with the stronger and weaker versions both dying. Then in 2022 S.2687 (MIPA) passed with the totally serious and very real H.4514 to match it and was the super strong version where it bounced back and forth a bit and….it got sent to STUDY. Starting to notice a pattern? But wait, there’s more. In 2024, S. 2770 (and the TOTALLY REAL H. 4632) both were born and died in Ways and Means.
Hmm, I may not be Sherlock Holmes but I’m starting to notice a disturbing pattern here. The Senate passes a bill it actually hopes to pass; by large numbers, getting more and more votes until it’s 40-0 and the House refers it to committee. This Borat Kazakhstan level stuff. But…maybe now that ICE is serious, maybe the House can get serious…so I searched the Massachusetts Legislature Website to see if there were any hearings scheduled on H.4746 (the TOTALLY real House Answer to the senate version) and remarkably there was nothing there. I checked the committee schedule. Nope. I checked several organizations including the ACLU, LUCE, MIRA etc and on digging a bit deeper, there was nothing. But I didn’t believe this was real; surely they would have ZERO hearings or public pressure and on talking to the Massachusetts ACLU there was a meet and greet at the Capital Feb 4 at 1:30 pm on the 4th floor of the state house; so someone somewhere is actually trying to make the TOTALLY real bill actually go somewhere. Alas, I was unable to make this event but on examining social media or the news or any blogs anywhere about how this went down … .crickets. I can tell you beyond doubt that the gentleman I spoke to from the ACLU was extremely serious and their intent is clear.
But then again, I have little doubt about their intent on the other five bills either. I sent several emails to the appropriate committee chairs and the house to find out when hearings are scheduled and its absolute crickets.
How did we get to this rotten state of affairs? At least in Denmark you actually have a responsible and democratic legislature. Well, here are a few reasons. First, just like the Federal Congress; the legislature has exempted itself from all open records laws. EVERY SINGLE OTHER STATE; including blood red republican states (except Michigan) has done this. And even Michigan has SOMETHING. The Open Meetings law exempts the legislature. The Public Records Law also exempts them. Robert Ambrogi of the MNPA states, “Legislative committees in the state work almost entirely in closed sessions, holding public sessions only for votes that are often ‘rubber stamps’ of pre-negotiated deals.” Or translated into normal English; you can’t see what they vote on and you can’t attend a meeting where they have it out. It’s a black box.
And we all know how well that works out. Can you say Banana Republic? So the House can say it is working on a bill and then send it to said black box and you can’t ever hold your specific legislator responsible; and thus all power rests on the Speaker of the House who can kill your bill; kill your career or kill your committee assignments with no consequence or accountability whatsoever. Under Massachusetts law, you can make promises about a public process and face absolutely no consequences for breaking them.
All power devolves to the Speaker, from the Speaker and by the Speaker. But try to hold them to account and it’s like nailing jello to a wall. But it’s not like people aren’t aware of the problem and doing something about it. Do you remember that ballot question last November 2024 about “The State Auditor shall have the power to conduct performative audits of the Legislator”? Well, just like Republican Red States that ignore the will of the voters tying up Voting referendums in court, Speaker Mariano has done the same thing to the state auditor. The voters quite clearly said that they want the House to show its homework and Speaker Mariano sent back a warm newspaper wrapped around sewage.
So who are these people? Who is this “Family” that feels your needs and wants don’t matter?
Speaker Ronald Mariano (Not McDonald): He controls the schedule. He decides what gets voted on. When it is voted on. And he can move any bill to the lo any time that he wants. And it’s not like he’s a Republican…he has done some good things with his power. In 2006, he was a key architect of Massachusetts health care reform. In 2014, he created gun safety legislation that became a template used throughout the rest of the country. He has also taken on criminal justice; marijuana legalization and ride share issues. He has the willpower and talent; but hasn’t done shit on the senate privacy bills sent to him. My theory (and I am not alone in this), is his buddies the Boston Chamber of Commerce. He meets with them regularly; and they don’t like this bill. We’ll get into them later, but suffice to say, if they don’t like something, I’ve yet to find an example in my research of Mariano defying his patron. I can’t PROVE that Mariano has killed these bills, but I can structurally point to the fact that he definitely has the power and chooses not to use it.
What is the financial relationship here? He isn’t receiving tons of campaign regulations; but he speaks at the BCOC functions all the time and BCOC (including LexisNexis) is making a LOT of money from our stolen data. So it might not be as blatantly corrupt as the Federal Congress but we have a powerful man benefiting the rich with opaque financial and record accountability; deliberately using that power to avoid accountability and without any visible motivation to screw over the people of Massachusetts for these bills somehow directly connected to it through inaction. It smells. A lot.
Chair Aaron Michlewitz (House Ways & Means): Basically the heir apparent to the Massachusetts Bermuda Bill Triangle; S.2608 is currently in his backyard. He got the bill Nov 17 and there are no hearing scheduled. Bear in mind that ICE is using this data to harm people all over the country; and Rep Michlewitz is watching people be murdered on live television; likely with highly supportive and sympathetic verbiage to the people of Minnesota while sitting on a bill to help protect the people of Massachusetts. The last one of these bills has died on his watch. He is the gatekeeper for the gatekeeper.
Rep Manny Cruz: The representative from Salem, MA is caught between a rock and a hard place. When I reached out to him about this, he was very supportive. He is the one who put me in touch with the Massachusetts ACLU. He is also a new freshman but also rising through the ranks and serving in Michlewitz’s committee. I’ve been told things are in motion; but there is no motion visible. He answers to his immigrant constituents who are being directly harmed by this bill; nor can he criticize house leadership lest his power be stripped by a vengeful speaker. He’s not the Speaker; but I’ve noticed he has not said a single hostile thing about Leadership. Why would he? He doesn’t want to throw his career away nor does he want to simply abandon his constituents who are being harmed by ICE.
Governor Maura Healey-The second most powerful person in the State after the Speaker; you’d think she would care about ICE taking our data and murdering us with it. As Attorney General, she was a bad ass. She sued Trump over a hundred times and was the first to sue Purdue/Sacklers on the Oxy crap. She also led the first defense on the Defense of Marriage act; the real deal. And she has done a few things on ICE like banning them from state facilities. She filed a bill logically banning ICE from sensitive places and said the right things. But on this there has been no endorsement; no call to pass it, no mention of S.2608 to pass it. Seems a bit weird to talk about ICE and not mention a bill to stop them from using our own data in which to inflict weaponized suffering. Why? She has moved mountains on other issues, but on this she hasn’t even farted a molehill. Why the silence?
So we have Speaker Mariano and Chair Michelwitz kicking the senate bill like a kid that isn’t coughing up his lunch money while Governor Healey looks concerned but doesn’t get the teacher. Three people with power, and none of them using it. Now why should you care, besides not wanting ICE to murder you?
ICE is, as we speak, buying this data as part of a truly terrifying technofascist panopticon Peter Thiel, Elon Musk and Larry Ellison want to use to turn the United State of America into a CCP style social credit dystopia in the US. Just like Ukraine is allowing NATO to field test a lot of its weapons against Russia; ICE is testing the technofascists’ toys on us. They take everything from location data from private brokers; facial recognition extorted from you by the TSA at the airport and the meta data from every single app you use on your phone.
S.2608 (and the imaginary House Bill) are designed to prevent this. ICE uses your data for terror. Massachusetts could easily keep it from being sold, but Big Tech loves using this data to sell you shit you don’t need or want; so our ‘leaders’ want to keep the spigot open. There are real consequences for this. Without this bill; your data can be sold, and there is no enforcement action even if they do something illegal. Moreover, the private enforcement mechanism in the imaginary house bill would prevent even the Attorney General from preventing enforcement. Who are the natural constituents of the Massachusetts State House? You or the Data Brokers? Without accountability and only looking at actions not words; sure looks like its the Data Brokers.
If you don’t like this, you can primary the Speaker and Chairman if you have a friend who lives in their district but you can only get on the ballot if you file by Feb 13, 2026. Makes you wonder if they are trying to run out the clock while ICE murders us in our sleep. How long, how long will we tolerate the Massachusetts State House being where good ideas go to die? But Massachusetts is among the most blue states in the nation and this is Banana Republic shit. We even passed a ballot amendment in November 2024 to hold them accountable and this kind of Florida Legislature behavior against the popular will shows nothing but contempt for the will and well being of the people.
Hot. Fucking. Garbage.
[1]: https://bostonchamber.com/events/2025-government-affairs-forum-ronald-j-mariano-massachusetts-speaker-of-the-house/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Ronald J. Mariano, Massachusetts Speaker of the House”
[2]: https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2025-06-23/state-lawmakers-poised-to-open-up-black-box-of-committee-votes?utm_source=chatgpt.com “State lawmakers poised to open up ‘black box’ of …”
[3]: https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/11/05/state-legislative-audit-limbo-dizoglio-ballot-question?utm_source=chatgpt.com “State legislative audit stuck in limbo one year after voters …”
[4]: https://www.wbur.org/news/2024/10/21/dizoglio-issues-audit-of-mass-legislature-as-voters-decide-on-whether-to-expand-her-powers-to-review-the-body?utm_source=chatgpt.com “DiZoglio issues audit of Mass. Legislature as voters decide …”
[5]: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/26/metro/massachusetts-house-staff-union-complaint/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Mass. House passes new rules, outsource equal …”
[6]: https://commonwealthbeacon.org/government/state-government/state-house-labor-pains-the-long-fight-carries-on-for-unionizing-legislative-aides/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “State House labor pains: The long fight carries on for …”
[7]: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/08/05/metro/massachusetts-house-stipends-leadership-pay/?utm_source=chatgpt.com “In Massachusetts Legislature, leadership stipends stifle …”
[8]: https://apnews.com/article/88e853eaeea8b7ef3045a80189a7dacf?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Massachusetts auditor announces rare review of Legislature”
[9]: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H4746?utm_source=chatgpt.com “Bill H.4746”