With a report suggesting the federal government may be preparing a surge of immigration enforcement in the Boston area, Gov. Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu are speaking out.
The pair on Monday both addressed a Politico report on Friday saying the Trump administration is preparing “an immigration enforcement blitz” in Boston in the coming weeks. The report cited unnamed current and former administration sources, and NBC News has yet to confirm it.
But Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was asked about the report on “Face the Nation” Sunday, and did not deny she was planning an expansion to other cities, including Boston.
“I think there’s a lot of cities that are dealing with crime and violence right immediately and so we haven’t taken anything off the table,” she said.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not responded to requests for comment from NBC10 Boston.
Mayor Michelle Wu has responded to a report that ICE is planning an immigration enforcement blitz in Boston.
Asked about the report Monday, at the city’s first Labor Day Parade, Wu elaborated on a statement she released about earlier in the weekend.
“Groceries are becoming more expensive, housing is harder to build, and all of this connected to a federal administration that is targeting the very people who built our country and our cities,” the mayor said.
Healey said the president should be sending funding, not troops: “I think it’s disrespectful to local and state law enforcement, who work hard every day. And what we need from the Trump administration is funding for cops, funding for community policing, funding for law enforcement.”
Hundreds of people came out for Boston’s first-ever Labor Day Parade, with Gov. Maura Healey and other politicians joining union leaders in front of the Massachusetts State House.
Todd Lyons, the acting ICE director, has previously vowed to “flood the zone in Boston” with federal immigration enforcement.
Tensions between Wu and the Trump administration came to a head earlier this month when the Justice Department sent letters to Boston and other sanctuary jurisdictions demanding they end the immigration protections. They threatened to cut off federal funding and prosecute officials if the cities didn’t comply.
In response, Wu held a press conference with local leaders where she called on Trump to “stop attacking our cities.”
“We will not back down,” she said. “This is not the first time I’ve made it clear that our residents expect us to take care of our city. We know how to take care of our neighbors here in Boston without the interference, coersion, intimidation, bullying or threats from the federal government.”
After the federal government gave an ultimatum to Boston and other cities and states, Mayor Michelle Wu stood behind local policies and court rulings.
Two federal law enforcement officials told NBC News earlier this week that multiple federal agencies, including ICE and Border Patrol, will soon “surge manpower” to Chicago to increase arrests of undocumented immigrants, and that similar operations were planned in other so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Healey has called the use of national guards to supplement immigration enforcement “political theater” that “does nothing to improve public safety,” On Thursday, she joined the nation’s other Democratic governors in a statement calling for an end to the president’s attempts to deploy states’ national guards.
“Every American deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood and community. But instead of actually addressing crime, President Trump cut federal funding for law enforcement that states rely on and continues to politicize our military by trying to undermine the executive authority of Governors as Commanders in Chief of their state’s National Guard,” the 19 governors wrote.
They called deploying the National Guard without its governor’s consent “an alarming abuse of power” and “chaotic federal interference.”
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