BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is calling out President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, and pushing back on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement over what she calls their “secret police tactics.”
Wu signed an executive order that seeks more information from federal officials on ICE activity. She says the city plans on regularly submitting Freedom of Information Act requests to the Department of Homeland Security to find out who is being detained and why.
Wu says there is a lack of transparency between the federal and local governments, with ICE arresting people without due process, wearing masks, and questioning residents about their immigration status based on their ethnicity.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, a native of South Boston and a graduate of Boston College High School in Dorchester, said earlier this month that his agents have been “doxed” on social media, and often wear masks while on duty and making immigration arrests after officers, and their families, have received death threats.
Wu also claims the Trump administration is making Boston less safe and undermining the city’s economic progress, tourism, and growth of small businesses.
Boston has already taken several legal actions to oppose the Trump administration’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, oppose ending humanitarian protections for immigrants, and challenge billions in cuts to funding for medical research.
This latest order, Wu said, is to let the community know that Boston is not backing down.
“We are taking every possible action here in our city to push back and to stand up for basic rights for our freedoms and for the opportunities that we have been building here as a city whose mission every day is to be a home for everyone,” Wu said.
Wu also advised Homan and ICE to “take a time out” when it comes to the agency’s operations across the country.
Just last week, ICE leaders held a news conference announcing the arrests of nearly 1,500 people in a month-long effort in Massachusetts. ICE officials stated that their work was essential to restoring public safety.
However, Wu went on to say that Boston is one of the safest major cities in the country, and she doesn’t need the federal government to tell her what safety looks like.
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