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Wu hits back at U.S. attorney for Mass. over ICE remarks
"I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks," Mayor Michelle Wu said when asked about ICE agents hiding their faces.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu shot back at the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts on Wednesday, after U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said Wu made “reckless and inflammatory” comments about ICE agents.
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The back-and-forth started last week, when Wu said that people were “terrified” by the actions of ICE. At an event for WBUR, Wu told interviewers that residents were getting “snatched off the street by secret police who are wearing masks, who can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained.”
Foley called out Wu directly on Wednesday morning in a video posted to social media. She said that Wu was creating “false narratives” about federal agents. Foley defended the practice of these agents wearing masks to hide their identities in public, saying that agents and their families are being “threatened, doxxed, and assaulted.”
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So, later on Wednesday, reporters asked Wu at an unrelated event for her thoughts on Foley’s message. She drew a contrast between local police and federal agents.
Boston police work “without wearing masks, displaying their badges publicly, with body cameras that document the interactions that take place with full transparency, because we have nothing to hide,” she said, per The Boston Globe.
Wu continued, bringing up the New England-based neo-Nazi group NSC 131.
“I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks,” she said. “We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks, NSC 131 routinely wears masks.”
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NSC 131 increased their presence in and around Boston a few years ago, demonstrating at the St. Patrick’s Day parade and targeting drag queen story hours.
ICE activity appears to be increasing around Massachusetts. Residents routinely document agents operating in their communities and post images and video to social media. Many of these agents hide their identities with neck gaiters, sunglasses, and baseball caps. A grassroots network takes reports of ICE activity and dispatches volunteers to document what happens.
In many cases, the hostility between residents and agents is evident. Perhaps the most notable clash occurred in Worcester last month. As agents attempted to detain a Brazilian national, a crowd surrounded them. Worcester police got involved. A local candidate for Worcester School Committee and the Brazilian national’s teen daughter were arrested.
This week, news broke that Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj has been charged with assault and battery on a police officer for her role in the altercation.
Foley was appointed to her position immediately after President Donald Trump regained office. She quickly threatened to investigate anyone who obstructs ICE activity, including elected officials. Foley has been in lockstep with federal authorities as they work to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
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After weeks of reports of heightened ICE activity, federal officials convened a press conference earlier this week to announce that a monthlong operation in Massachusetts resulted in the arrests of almost 1,500 undocumented immigrants. It was one of the largest ICE operations ever. Authorities insisted that agents would continue their work without slowing down.
Foley’s defense of agents wearing masks echoes comments made at that press conference by Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE. Lyons referenced a situation that occurred in Los Angeles earlier this year, when activists reportedly posted the photos, names and addresses of ICE agents operating there. He also said that ICE worked with the Secret Service to arrest someone that was doxxing ICE agents and their families online.
When asked about Lyons’ comments, a Secret Service spokesperson confirmed that the agency recently worked with Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of ICE, on an operation in Los Angeles “that targeted electronic benefits fraud and ATM/credit card skimming.” He referred Boston.com to ICE for more information.
Spokespeople for Foley’s office and ICE did not return requests for more information Thursday about specific instances of agents being targeted online.
The tension between local and federal officials over the issue is not likely to go away anytime soon. ICE is now making “collateral arrests” of any undocumented immigrant they find in the course of their work, even if that person was not their initial target. Of the 1,461 people arrested in the recent operation in Massachusetts, 790 were charged with or convicted of crimes in the US or abroad,” according to authorities. The rest apparently were “collateral arrests,” including an 18-year-old from Milford.
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The arrest of that teen sparked outcry from residents that shows no signs of abating. Wu is also not backing down from her position.
“We see what’s happening with our own eyes,” Wu said in a social media post Thursday morning. “A land ruled by fear is not the land of the free.”
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