Tag Archives: Boston

Axios: ICE arrests rock Malden, Somerville

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It’s a familiar scene: neighbors, attorneys and activists rallying with immigrant families over the loved ones lost in the federal immigration system.

  • Dozens came together in Malden on Monday, this time for Edgar Hernan Elias Escobar.

The big picture: Elias Escobar, a native of El Salvador with no criminal record, joins a growing population of newcomers disappearing from the streets of Malden, Somerville and other Boston-area communities in the past two weeks.

Catch up quick: Elias Escobar, an undocumented immigrant who was obtaining papers through a family-based petition from his wife, was stopped by immigration agents on his way to a construction job Wednesday.

  • Agents smashed his car window and pulled him out, even after his wife, Leslie Perlera Gonzalez, showed up saying he had a pending immigration petition, GBH News reported.
  • A Department of Homeland Security official later told Axios he refused to roll down his window and that the “officers took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation.”

State of play: Elias Escobar is detained in the Plymouth County Correctional Center with other immigrant detainees.

  • Greater Boston Legal Services, where Perlera Gonzalez works, filed a lawsuit alleging his rights were violated.

Yes, but: The Trump administration has fought habeas lawsuits over immigrant detainees tooth and nail since ramping up immigration enforcement this year.

Context: Immigrants have historically been allowed to adjust their status through a handful of avenues if they have a relative or spouse who is a U.S. citizen.

  • With the exception of the first Trump administration, it is uncommon for immigration officials to detain and seek to deport an immigrant mid-petition or with legal status if the person poses no public safety threat, said Maggie Morgan, managing attorney for the GBLS immigration unit.

Morgan says she has seen reports of immigration agents detaining people before confirming their identity or status.

  • “This is violating due process not just for those individuals, but for everyone in the community who could be at risk of having this happen to them,” Morgan said.

Zoom out: The LUCE hotline has received more than 100 calls in the last week flagging immigration enforcement activity.

  • Somerville residents tried to stop immigration agents from questioning a man they stopped. He complied and, within minutes, was placed in handcuffs despite having no known record, Rep. Mike Connolly told the Cambridge Day.

What they’re saying: “I believe that if Hernan doesn’t get to come home, it has little to do with the rights or whether he deserves to be an American and more to do with the U.S. deciding who it likes,” Frank Pinto, Perlera Gonzalez’s cousin, told the crowd Monday morning.

The other side: The DHS official said any claims of racial profiling are “categorically false.”

  • “What makes someone a target of ICE is that they are in our country illegally—not their skin color,” the official said. “DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence.”

What we’re watching: A federal judge will have to decide whether Elias Escobar’s lawsuit can move forward and if he can continue to pursue his immigration application.

ICE arrests rock Malden, Somerville
An immigrant resource hotline received 100-plus calls last week.

https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2025/09/22/ice-arrests-malden-somerville

Fox News: ICE agents break car window to arrest resisting illegal immigrant in exclusive Fox News ride-along

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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago this week, arresting multiple criminal illegal immigrants as Fox News joined agents for an exclusive ride-along.

On Tuesday, ICE agents arrested a Mexican national on a federal criminal arrest warrant for multiple felony reentries into the United States. Fox News learned that the individual had been deported twice to Mexico and returned a third time to the U.S. He is also facing charges for assault in a previous case.

Fox News cameras followed agents as they approached the Mexican national outside his home. The individual tried to enter his car to avoid arrest, forcing ICE agents to break its window and extract him from the vehicle. He then appears to continue resisting arrest.

The Mexican national will face federal criminal prosecution before he is deported, potentially spending time in jail, Fox News learned.

ICE and Fox lie as usual — this guy’s only “crime” was being in the U.S. too often. We are not made the least bit safer by his arrest, and taxpayers will be funding his room and board.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-agents-break-car-window-to-arrest-resisting-illegal-immigrant-in-exclusive-fox-news-ride-along/ar-AA1McWfM

Washington Post: Senators ramp up pressure on Trump to abandon threats to send troops into U.S. cities

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A group of Democratic senators is filing a friend of the court brief Tuesday in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit against President Donald Trump, stepping up pressure to keep Trump from overriding Democratic leaders and sending National Guard troops into Democrat-led cities like Chicago.

The 19 senators are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to overturn a temporary order issued by a three-judge panel in June that found that Trump had the authority to send National Guard troops into Los Angeles this summer over Newsom’s objections. The Democratic senators argue that the issue has gained greater salience since then, as Trump began threatening to go into other states and cities against the wishes of their governors and mayors.

The senators are amplifying Newsom’s argument that the president’s use of the federal troops — at a moment when local law enforcement officials said they did not need federal support — violated the separation of powers doctrine by usurping Congress.

A federal district court judge initially sided with Newsom on June 12. Then, on June 19, the three-judge panel issued their temporary ruling siding with Trump. California is waiting on a final ruling from the appeals court.

Led by California Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, the group includes senators who represent Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, and Portland — all cities that Trump has threatened to send in National Guard troops to “straighten it out” as he ramps up enforcement on crime and immigration. Schiff said in a statement that he hoped the Newsom case would become “the line drawn in the sand to prevent further misuse of our service members on the streets of American cities.”

The senators argue in their brief that by federalizing 4,000 California National Guard troops for domestic law enforcement over Newsom’s objections “without showing a genuine inability to enforce federal laws with the regular forces,” Trump violated the Tenth Amendment’s anti-commandeering mandate and contravened the provisions of the Constitution assigning power over militias to Congress.

“Our concern that President Trump will continue to act in bad faith and abuse his power is borne out by his recent deployment of state militias to Washington, D.C. and his stated intent to deploy state militias elsewhere (like Chicago and Baltimore),” the senators wrote in the brief obtained by The Washington Post that will be filed in court Tuesday. They warned that courts are the last resort to “prevent the President from exceeding his constitutional powers” and that failing to do so could “usher in an era of unprecedented, dangerous executive power.”

In court filings this summer, the administration argued that Trump was compelled to send the National Guard to protect federal personnel and property because numerous “incidents of violence and disorder” posed unacceptable safety risks to personnel who were “supporting the faithful execution of federal immigration laws.” Department of Justice lawyers argued that Trump was within his rights to mobilize the National Guard and Marines “to protect federal agents and property from violent mobs that state and local authorities cannot or choose not to control.”

Before Trump sent National Guard troops into Los Angeles this summer in the midst of protests against his administration’s immigration raids, prior presidents had deployed Guard troops on American soil primarily to assist after natural disasters or to quell unrest.

The senators write that the last instance in which a president federalized the National Guard without consent from the state’s governor is when Alabama Gov. George Wallace (D) ordered the Alabama Highway Patrol to prevent the Rev. Martin Luther King, Rep. John Lewis and others from marching from Selma to Montgomery. President Lyndon B. Johnson intervened to protect the marchers.

Our arguments to the court make clear that Trump’s unprecedented militarization of Los Angeles should not be used as a playbook for terrorizing other cities across America,” Padilla said in a statement.

Last month, the president deployed National Guard troops and federal agents to D.C., arguing that they needed to tackle a “crime emergency” that local officials say does not exist. D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, a Democrat, last week sued the Trump administration, seeking to force it to withdraw troops from the city.

In recent days, Trump has escalated his warnings to intervene in Chicago, posting on his social media site that the city is “about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” a reference to the Defense Department.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) said on social media Monday that Trump’s threats were not “about fighting crime,” which would require “support and coordination” from the administration that he had not yet seen.

The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it had launched an operation to target immigrants in Chicago as the president vowed a broader crackdown on violent crime. A spokesperson for Pritzker said Monday that the governor’s office has not received any formal communication from the Trump administration or information about its plans.

Senators ramp up pressure on Trump to abandon threats to send troops into U.S. cities
Democratic senators are filing a brief in support of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s suit against the Trump administration.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/senators-ramp-up-pressure-on-trump-to-abandon-threats-to-send-troops-into-u-s-cities/ar-AA1Mb9dp

Washington Post: ICE begins immigration crackdown in Massachusetts, DHS says

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The Trump administration has launched an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Massachusetts, saying it would target what it called “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens” in the state.

The Department of Homeland Security provided few details on the scale of the latest operation, called Patriot 2.0. But in a statement Saturday, the department said that it followed “the success of Operation Patriot in May.” The earlier ICE raids resulted in nearly 1,500 arrests across Massachusetts, including dozens of migrant workers on Martha’s Vineyard.

“If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return,” the statement said.

The Massachusetts operation comes as the Trump administration has signaled it is preparing to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago — a move that local leaders have strongly opposed.

On Thursday, the administration sued Boston and its leaders for allegedly refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities, adding to a string of similar lawsuits against so-called “sanctuary cities.”

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has defended the city’s laws, describing the lawsuit Thursday as an “unconstitutional attack on our city.” The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ICE operation Saturday.

In its statement Saturday, DHS said “sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but also place these public safety threats above the interests of law-abiding American citizens.”

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan vowed last week to increase immigration enforcement across sanctuary cities, saying the administration was planning to “flood the zone” with thousands of agents.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem has repeatedly said that immigration officers are arresting the “worst of the worst.” But a Washington Post analysis of ICE data from June found the administration is increasingly targeting unauthorized immigrants with no criminal record as it ramps up arrests.

Federal authorities said the Massachusetts arrests in May included an alleged MS-13 gang member and someone described as a “child sex offender.” But according to community members, most of the migrants had no criminal record and were stopped on their way to work.

ICE begins immigration crackdown in Massachusetts, DHS says
The Trump administration has launched an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Massachusetts days after it sued Boston over the city’s sanctuary policies.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-begins-immigration-crackdown-in-massachusetts-dhs-says/ar-AA1M2kH7

Daily Beast: Pam [Bimbo #3] Bondi Takes Aim at Boston Citing Crimes From Elsewhere

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The attorney general suggested Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is somehow responsible for an alleged crime that occurred 100 miles outside city limits.

Attorney General Pam Bondi cited crimes that occurred outside of Boston to criticize the city’s mayor in a head-scratching interview with Fox News.

Bondi, 59, told Sean Hannity that Boston—one of the safest major cities in America—is actually “not” safe, citing a trio of grisly crimes. She singled out Mayor Michelle Wu, claiming the 40-year-old Democrat has lost control of the city.

“A Haitian national was charged with raping a child in a migrant center,” she said. “An 18-year-old illegal alien from Haiti molested a 10-year-old child. An illegal from El Salvador, 11 counts of rape against a child … I could go on and on about the crimes in the Boston area. So, if she’s not going to protect the people of Boston, we are.”

As Mediaite first noted, the alleged migrant center incident took place 20 miles from Boston, the alleged molestation took place 30 miles outside city limits, and the incident involving the Salvadoran national took place on Nantucket, an island about 100 miles south of the state capital.

Wu, of course, has zero jurisdiction over crimes that take place well outside Boston’s city limits. It would be the equivalent of blaming President Donald Trump for something that occurred over the border in Mexico or Canada.

The Trump administration, which has already deployed the National Guard to the streets of Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., has signaled plans for similar actions in other Democrat-controlled cities, including Boston.

Reached for comment, Wu’s office said in a statement: “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.”

It continued, “This country was born facing down bullies, with Bostonians leading the way. 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.”

The administration sued Boston and Wu on Thursday over an ordinance that limits local police from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

Wu responded that same day, “This unconstitutional attack on our city is not a surprise. Boston is a thriving community, the economic and cultural hub of New England, and the safest major city in the country—but this administration is intent on attacking our community to advance their own authoritarian agenda.”

Boston is not suffering from a crime spike. It reported its lowest homicide rate since 1957 last year, and other violent and property crimes are on a “downward trend.”

Bondi refused to let those facts get in the way of her talking point.

“Michelle Wu is one of the worst offenders in the entire country,” she told Hannity. “She says Boston is safe. It’s not.”

Pam Bondi Takes Aim at Boston Using Crimes From Elsewhere
The attorney general suggested Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is somehow responsible for an alleged crime that occurred 100 miles outside city limits.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/pam-bondi-takes-aim-at-boston-citing-crimes-from-elsewhere

Wichita Eagle: ICE Targets Sanctuary City — Mayor Faces Defiance

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Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons claimed that some Boston Police officers have shared information with ICE despite the city’s sanctuary policies. City officials and immigrant-rights advocates have criticized the actions, arguing they undermine community relations. ICE has noted that it plans to increase enforcement in sanctuary jurisdictions. Lyons said, “We have so many men and women of the Boston Police Department and other jurisdictions that are so pro-ICE, that want to work with us, and that are actually helping us behind the scenes.” He stated, “Sanctuary does not mean safer streets. It means more criminal aliens out and about the neighborhood. But 100%, you will see a larger ICE presence.”

Lyons reported an alleged covert cooperation by some officers. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu affirmed the city’s sanctuary status, saying Boston follows the law but will resist federal demands to revoke it.

Wu said, “Silence in the face of oppression is not an option. The U.S. Attorney General asked for a response by today. So here it is…Stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures.”

The Boston Trust Act limits city cooperation with federal agencies. Attorney General Pam Bondi sent letters to sanctuary jurisdictions seeking compliance plans and warned of potential federal fund cuts for noncompliance.

Local officials have called the enforcement and funding threats politically motivated. Bondi stated, “The Department of Justice will continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”

Lyons said, “What I think local leaders don’t understand, is they need to talk to the men and women on the ground, because … there are so many of these criminal aliens that keep getting released to go out and commit more crimes that the local law enforcement have to deal with.”

Bondi concluded, “We are going to send in law enforcement just like we did during the LA riots, just like we’re doing here in Washington, DC, and if they’re not going to keep their citizens safe, Donald Trump will keep them safe.”

ICE Targets Sanctuary City — Mayor Faces Defiance

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ice-targets-sanctuary-city-mayor-faces-defiance/ss-AA1LFGeg

MSNBC: Republican Senator slams Trump DC troop deployment: ‘Where do we stop?’

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Republican Senator slams Trump DC troop deployment: ‘Where do we stop?’
The Trump Administration is ramping up its war on blue cities with plans for major immigration crackdowns. Politico reports that The Trump administration is planning a surge in immigration enforcement in Boston “soon.” In Chicago, the planned immigration enforcement could come next week with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, and other federal agencies taking part.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/republican-senator-slams-trump-dc-troop-deployment-where-do-we-stop/vi-AA1LxMYj

MSNBC: How Trump’s takeover is fueling a ‘crisis’ at a Virginia ICE office

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How Trump’s takeover is fueling a ‘crisis’ at a Virginia ICE office
A Virginia ICE facility is facing criticism over inhumane conditions that appears to be a direct result of the Trump administration’s ramped-up arrests in Washington DC, according to Laura Barron-Lopez’s reporting. Former DHS official and FWD.us Vice President of Immigration Policy Andrea Flores joins The Weekend to discuss.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/how-trump-s-takeover-is-fueling-a-crisis-at-a-virginia-ice-office/vi-AA1LxHL2

MSNBC: ‘Would not bother me at all’: Trump considers televised arrest of ‘Russiagate’ foes

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‘Would not bother me at all’: Trump considers televised arrest of ‘Russiagate’ foes
In an exclusive new interview with the Daily Caller, Trump was asked whether he’d be comfortable seeing former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan arrested live on television as part of his administration’s new focus on the Russia election interference investigation. His response? “Would not bother me at all.” Plus, Trump continues to push experts out of government agencies in favor of MAGA loyalists, and Trump is ramping up his threats against Boston and Chicago.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/would-not-bother-me-at-all-trump-considers-televised-arrest-of-russiagate-foes/vi-AA1LAAjx

NBC News: Kristi Noem confirms plan to expand ICE operations in major cities

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The DHS secretary made the comments after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson threatened legal action against any surge of federal law enforcement or National Guard troops in the city.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Sunday that the Trump administration plans to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in major cities, including Chicago.

Asked about plans to expand ICE operations in Chicago specifically, Noem told CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” “We’ve already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago and throughout Illinois and other states, making sure that we’re upholding our laws, but we do intend to add more resources to those operations.”

Asked about what an expansion of ICE operations would look like in Chicago and whether it would involve a mobilization of National Guard troops to assist with immigration raids and arrests, Noem demurred, saying, “That always is a prerogative of President [Donald] Trump and his decision. I won’t speak to the specifics of the operations that are planned in other cities.”

Her remarks come one day after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order directing his city’s legal department to explore ways to counter a potential surge in federal law enforcement and National Guard troops to Illinois.

During a press conference Saturday, Johnson warned that Chicago officials had “received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our cities see some type of militarized activity by the federal government.”

Earlier this month, the Trump administration directed federal law enforcement officers, including those employed by ICE, to assist police in Washington, D.C., with crime-fighting operations. That surge of resources included thousands of National Guard troops who were deployed to the nation’s capital with the stated goal of lowering crime rates.

Following the movement of troops and law enforcement officers to Washington, Trump threatened to send federal officers and troops to other major American cities, including Baltimore.

Later in the Sunday interview, Noem was asked whether Boston would be one of the cities where the federal government would surge immigration enforcement agents.

“There’s a lot of cities that are dealing with crime and violence right now, and so we haven’t taken anything off the table,” she said, adding later: “I’d encourage every single big city — San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, whatever they are — if they want to help make their city safer, more prosperous, allow people the opportunity to walk in freedom like the people of Washington, D.C., are now … they should call us.”

Other Democratic officials, including a group of over a dozen governors, have condemned plans to deploy troops to their states.

In a statement last week, they said, “Whether it’s Illinois, Maryland and New York or another state tomorrow, the President’s threats and efforts to deploy a state’s National Guard without the request and consent of that state’s governor is an alarming abuse of power, ineffective, and undermines the mission of our service members.”

And in an interview that aired Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, said, “We don’t want troops on the streets of American cities. That’s un-American. Frankly, the president of the United States ought to know better.”

Pritzker also accused the Trump administration of targeting states run by Democrats rather than those run by Republicans, telling CBS, “Notice he never talks about where the most violent crime is occurring, which is in red states. … Their violent crime rates are much worse in other places, and we’re very proud of the work that we’ve done.”

Asked whether there are plans in place to deploy troops and federal law enforcement officials to states and cities run by Republicans, Noem said, “Absolutely.”

“Every single city is evaluated for what we need to do there to make it safer. So we’ve got operations that, again, I won’t talk about details on, but we absolutely are not looking through the viewpoint at anything we’re doing with a political lens,” she added.

Kristi Noem confirms plan to expand ICE operations in major cities
The DHS secretary made the comments after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson threatened legal action against any surge of federal law enforcement or National Guard troops in the city.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/kristi-noem-confirms-plan-expand-ice-operations-major-cities-rcna228298