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‘We need to get answers’: Healey slams ICE for lack of information about arrests on Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket

“We at the state level, have zero information about what's happening in communities, and that needs to change.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey. Danielle Parhizkaran/The Boston Globe, file

May 28, 2025

2 minutes to read

Gov. Maura Healey blasted US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday for failing to share information with state and local leaders about the detention of dozens of people on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.

ICE officers, along with other federal agents, arrested about 40 people on Tuesday. In a statement, the agency said the people taken into custody were “alien offenders,” outlining that one person is an alleged member of MS-13 gang and that there was “at least one” child sex offender. But ICE officials did not release the names of the people detained or provide any detailed information about any alleged criminal histories.

Elected officials have claimed the people were profiled and pulled over by officers “without clear cause.”

During a press conference on Wednesday, Healey said she had no information about the ICE operation.

“We have zero information,” she said. “Local police chiefs have zero information about what’s happening in their communities. We at the state level have zero information about what’s happening in communities, and that needs to change. We need to get answers. We need to get clarification from ICE.”

Healey said it was “disturbing” to see the news about the operation on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket and hear that people were being followed on their way to work.

“There have been real questions raised about due process and whether or not ICE and immigration officials are following, complying with due process here and in other states,” Healey said. “And we need answers. And you know, I’ve said from the beginning, it’s one thing to go after and target those who have committed crimes who were here unlawfully. It’s concerning when we see people, moms and dads being ripped away from families, neighbors, co-workers taken away, literally, it looks like on the way to job sites in Nantucket and on the Vineyard. So we need to know more.”

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2017 that state and local officials cannot detain a person based solely on an ICE detainer request, but Healey’s Republican’ challengers — former MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve and former housing and economic development secretary Mike Kennealy — say they want state and local police to collaborate more actively with ICE, according to WBUR.

Healey said as a former attorney general, she has no problem “chasing bad guys and putting them away” and is happy to work with federal and local law enforcement to do so. But the governor said that with the ICE operations in Massachusetts, there are “too many instances where real questions about due process are raised.”

“The fear and the uncertainty, the anxiety that is created in these communities, I think, is totally unnecessary,” she said of the sweeps.