Gov. Maura Healey lashed out against the Trump administration in an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday, saying expanded ICE activity in Massachusetts and other states “insane,” and “not right.”
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is conducting a follow-up to a surge in May called Operation Patriot 2.0, a senior spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which ICE is a part of, told NBC10 Boston on Saturday. The May operation, Operation Patriot, resulted in nearly 1,500 people being arrested, officials said at the time.
In her MSNBC appearance, Healey said she hasn’t heard from the White House about this latest ICE surge in her state.
“I’m a former prosecutor, a former attorney general. I’ve said many, many times, including to Trump, that I support as attorney general, and now as governor, everything we can do on public safety,” she said. “But what we have seen from ICE and the administration isn’t about public safety, it’s about political theater, about a political power grab and an attempt to intimidate.”
“We’ve seen construction workers, nannies, landscapers, healthcare aids — these are the people being taken in huge numbers, taken away from their families. It is not the kind of effort Donald Trump has said it was about.”
“But again, this is about show, it’s a show of force, it’s political theater. The same reason you see the National Guard on streets in cities in America. It’s just not right. It’s not helpful to public safety. It undermines the efforts of local law enforcement and it’s taking guardspeople with really important missions away from those missions, all to be part of some political theater… It’s just not right what’s happening across America right now.”
Healey also criticized Trump’s social media post on Saturday, where the president signaled Chicago deportations with a parody meme referencing the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now” on Truth Social, saying “I love the smell of deportations in the morning…Chicago about to find out why its called the Department of WAR.”
“The post that the president put out last night bragging about some Chicago apocalypse, it’s just insane. It’s not normal. It’s not right,” Healey said. “It is wrong and if you care about public safety you work with local officials, you work with state officials, you support and fund local law enforcement. That’s really what you need to do.”
ICE officials and Massachusetts leaders traded barbs about immigration policy Monday.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issued a new statement Sunday addressing ICE, and saying the city could take legal action if it finds federal law enforcement isn’t following local, state or federal laws:
As ordered in the Boston Trust Act, no Boston police or local resources will be co-opted into federal immigration enforcement and their mass deportation agenda. For months, ICE has refused to provide any information about their activities in Boston and refuses to issue warrants, while we hear reports of ICE agents taking parents as they are dropping their kids off at school. That does not make our community safer. We expect that federal law enforcement will abide by the constitution and laws of this City, Commonwealth, and country, and we are prepared to take legal action at any evidence to the contrary.
The mayor has reiterated that its policies on immigrants — limiting local officials’ cooperation with deportation enforcement — have made it among the country’s safest cities, including in her response to a federal lawsuit filed this week over Boston’s “sanctuary” law, the Boston Trust Act.
Wu previously released a statement to NBC10 Boston on Saturday night addressing the latest operation in the area, saying, “For months, the Trump DOJ, DHS, and ICE have been spreading blatant lies and threatening to ‘bring hell’ to cities like Boston who refuse to bow down to their authoritarian agenda, so this unconstitutional attack is not a surprise.”
“This country was born facing down bullies, with Bostonians leading the way,” Wu continued. “Today Boston is the safest major city in the country because we have worked to build trust in the community, so that everyone feels safe seeking help or reporting a crime. We will not be bullied or intimidated into abandoning the efforts that make Boston a safe home for everyone.”
A Brazilian man who’d been living in Clinton, Mass., under DACA is back with his daughters after being released from months in ICE custody in Texas, fearing he’d be deported and separated from the girls, who have health issues.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many federal agents were taking part in Operation Patriot 2.0, or what Massachusetts communities the operation was being conducted in. The New York Times, citing sources, reported that the operation was expected to last several weeks; the DHS spokesperson’s statement didn’t address how long Patriot 2.0 would take.
ICE agents were seen in the town of Clinton on Friday morning.