The Massachusetts PROTECT Act, signed into law by Governor Healey on August 5, 2026, introduces significant new compliance obligations for employers operating in the state.
Known formally as Chapter 163 of the Acts of 2026, the law is primarily aimed at keeping federal immigration enforcement away from sensitive locations including courthouses, schools, child care centres, and health care facilities.
However, the Act also creates an immediate and direct obligation for employers with workers based in Massachusetts, which legal experts say requires prompt attention.
Under Section 8 of the PROTECT Act, employers must provide written notice to each employee within 48 hours of receiving a Notice of Inspection from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for I-9 forms or other employment records.
The statute qualifies this requirement with the phrase “Except as required by federal law,” though the core notification duty remains a clear and immediate obligation for covered employers.
One of the most notable aspects of the new rule is that it carries no size threshold, meaning it applies regardless of how large or small a business is or where the employer is headquartered.
Crucially, the law requires notice to “each employee,” not only those whose specific records were requested as part of an ICE inspection, broadening the scope of the obligation considerably.
Because the PROTECT Act was enacted as emergency legislation, this provision took effect immediately upon enactment, leaving employers no grace period to build compliance systems.
Employers who fail to comply face potential penalty exposure under Section 19C, which provides for a fine of between $200 and $500 for violation of any provision of that section, though how precisely that penalty applies to the new notice requirement may be subject to further legal interpretation.
Legal advisers are urging businesses to ensure that HR staff and front-line managers know to route any ICE notice, inspection request, subpoena, warrant, or workplace visit immediately to the employer’s designated HR or legal contact.
Businesses are also being advised to build the 48-hour clock into their immigration-enforcement response protocols as a standard operational procedure going forward.
Having a written employee notice template ready in advance, along with a clear process for distributing and documenting that notice, is considered best practice under the new framework.
The employer notice requirement forms just one part of a broader legislative package under the PROTECT Act, which also limits civil immigration enforcement activity across a range of sensitive community settings throughout Massachusetts.
The Act additionally requires the state to issue multilingual guidance for certain private entities on how to handle interactions with federal immigration enforcement, reflecting the law’s wider scope beyond the workplace.