BOSTON — Governor Maura Healey and Attorney General Andrea Campbell are telling every college and university in Massachusetts to put up signs designating campus buildings as off-limits to ICE agents, the latest escalation in the state's ongoing battle with federal immigration enforcement.

The guidance, issued Monday in a joint press release, instructs schools to designate areas that are "closed to the public" and to post signage making clear that those areas are inaccessible without authorization. Schools are being encouraged to treat dorms, residential halls, and other private campus spaces as places where ICE agents cannot enter without a valid judicial warrant.

ICE lying to arrest a student in their dorm room is outrageous — but sadly, exactly what we expect from President Trump's untrained federal agents.

Students and staff should know: ICE needs a judicial warrant to enter dorm buildings in Massachusetts.

— Governor Maura Healey (@MassGovernor) March 2, 2026

"When ICE agents enter private campus housing without a judge-signed warrant, that's not law enforcement, that's rogue behavior," Campbell said in a statement. "My office is actively in contact with colleges and universities, providing guidance and direct support to help them understand their rights and protect their students, faculty, and staff."

What prompted this

The move comes after federal agents gained access to a Columbia University residential building last Thursday by telling people inside that they were police searching for a missing child. They showed pictures of the alleged missing child to residents as they made their way through the building.

They were not looking for a missing child. They were looking for Elmina Aghayeva, a student from Azerbaijan.

"Once inside the apartment, it became clear they had misrepresented themselves," Columbia's acting president Claire Shipman said in a video message to the university community. "A public safety officer arrived, asked multiple times for a warrant, which was not produced, and asked for time to call his boss, which was not given."

Aghayeva was released later the same day after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani raised concerns about the arrest directly with President Trump.

Healey calls agents 'untrained'

Healey did not hold back in her statement, calling ICE agents "untrained" and accusing them of "doing President Trump's bidding."

"It's outrageous that ICE agents lied in order to get into a residential building and arrest a Columbia student, but that's par for the course for these untrained federal agents who are doing President Trump's bidding and making us all less safe," Healey said.

The governor and Campbell said they are also working on updated guidance for schools that will include "recommendations for interacting with federal immigration officers," expected to be released soon.

Part of a bigger pattern

This is not Healey's first move to create barriers between ICE and Massachusetts institutions. In January, she signed an executive order barring ICE from making arrests in non-public areas of state buildings and from using state property to stage immigration enforcement operations. That order was part of a broader push that included legislation to create ICE-free zones around schools, places of worship, and hospitals. Massachusetts Democrats have also introduced a bill that would allow individuals to sue ICE agents for civil rights violations during enforcement operations. Meanwhile, ICE has continued to make high-profile arrests across the state, including an illegal immigrant in Massachusetts charged with child sexual abuse material and assault on a child under 14 just last week. ICE's national account responded to that arrest by writing: "Despite Boston's refusal to cooperate with ICE, another child predator was removed from Mayor Wu's streets."

The guidance applies to all educational institutions in Massachusetts, public and private.