Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons said on Wednesday that the federal law enforcement agency will “flood the zone” with immigration agents in Boston after Mayor Michelle Wu (D) fired back at President Trump’s administration over the city’s sanctuary policies.
“We’re definitely going to, as you’ve heard the saying, flood the zone, especially in sanctuary jurisdictions,” Lyons said in an interview on “The Howie Carr Show.”
“Boston and Massachusetts decided to say that they wanted to stay [a] sanctuary. Sanctuary does not mean safer streets. It means more criminal aliens out and about the neighborhood. But 100 percent, you will see a larger ICE presence,” the acting ICE director told host Howie Carr.
Wu said on Tuesday that Boston will not “bow down to unconstitutional threats or unlawful coercion” from the federal government.
“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 mayor said.
Her comments came after Attorney General Pam Bondi sent out letters to 32 state and local governments last week, known as “sanctuary jurisdictions,” including Boston, saying they could have their federal funding dismissed or face legal action if they do not cooperate with the administration’s immigration crackdown. Bondi set the deadline for a response from the city for Tuesday this week.
“We did Operation Patriot March, which yielded over 1,000 arrests, and now you’re going to see more ICE agents come to Boston to make sure that we take these public threats out that she wants to let go back in the communities,” Lyons said. “We’re going to keep making America safe.”
Boston enacted the Boston Trust Act in 2014, which bars local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration enforcement agents, particularly around arresting migrants in the country illegally who are on civil warrants.
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