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‘I’m demanding that they stop’: ICE director bashes Wu, other politicians for criticizing agency
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons lambasted Mayor Wu and other politicians for “ridiculous rhetoric and inflammatory comments.”
The leader of Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a fiery response for Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other politicians who recently criticized the agency.
“Politicians need to stop putting my people in danger,” ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said Friday in a video posted on X. “I’m not asking them to stop — I’m demanding that they stop.”
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Lyons specifically addressed Wu and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, along with “anyone else stirring up the outrage about what ICE does.”
“While it’s easy to be an armchair quarterback and make up talking points that get activists riled up, the bottom line is my offices and agents are out there protecting the same people who are threatening their safety,” Lyons said.
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ICE wrote on X that recent “political rhetoric” has caused “anti-ICE sentiment and threats to federal officers and their families.”
“These are real people with real families you’re hurting with your ridiculous rhetoric and inflammatory comments, and it’s time to remember that,” Lyons said.
📺ICE acting director responds to political rhetoric causing anti-ICE sentiment and threats to federal officers and their families: “I’m not asking them to stop — I’m demanding that they stop.” pic.twitter.com/WQiLSMTu7P
— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@ICEgov) June 7, 2025
Wu said during a May 30 interview at an event for WBUR that people were “terrified” of ICE. She 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.”
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U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley called out Wu on social media last week, claiming that the mayor was creating “false narratives” about federal agents. Foley said that agents have been wearing masks to hide their identities in public because they and their families are being “threatened, doxxed, and assaulted.”
Wu stood her ground despite these claims, drawing comparisons between ICE and Boston police, who she said do their work every day “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,” according to The Boston Globe.
“I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks,” Wu told the Globe. “The U.S. attorney is attacking me for saying what Bostonians see with their own eyes.”
Wu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.
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