US Attorney condemns comments by Wu that ICE agents are ‘secret police’

BOSTON — U.S. Attorney Leah Foley on Wednesday condemned recent comments made by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu who called ICE immigration officers “secret police.”

Wu made the comments during a recent interview with WBUR.

“People are terrified for their lives and for their neighbors,” Wu told WBUR, according to the news organization. “Folks (are) 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.”

In a video message on social media on Wednesday, Foley denounced Wu’s comments, calling them “reckless and inflammatory statements.”

“Referring to federal agents as ‘secret police’ is offensive,” Foley said. “There are no secret police.”

“ICE agents along with other federal law enforcement partners are making immigration arrests. That is no secret,” Foley said. “They are arresting individuals who are here illegally, which is a violation of federal law. Every enforcement action is conducted within the bounds of the Constitution and our laws, with oversight, legal justification and accountability.”

“To claim otherwise is a gross misrepresentation and a disservice to the public,” Foley said.

Foley’s remarks come two days after federal authorities announced the arrests of nearly 1,500 people in Massachusetts who are living in the U.S. illegally in the month of May alone. More than half of those arrested have criminal convictions or charges, federal officials said.

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Those arrested include drug traffickers, sex offenders, murderers and foreign fugitives, officials said. They also include a 45-year-old Guatemalan national who is in the country illegally who was convicted of murder in Boston in 2020, for which he received a life sentence.

On Monday, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons doubled down on so-called sanctuary city policies in several Massachusetts communities that are thwarting public safety initiatives by his agency.

“If sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us, into our custody, instead of releasing them into the public, we would not have to go out into the communities and do this,” Lyons said Monday.

Lyons also said Monday that federal agents and officers 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.

Assaults against ICE officers are up 400 percent since this time period last year, Lyons said late last month.

Foley also spoke about the masks worn by federal agents and officers in her video message on Wednesday.

“Federal agents in marked jackets and vests are masking their faces because people like Mayor Wu have created false narratives about their mission,” Foley said. “Federal agents and their children are being threatened, doxed and assaulted. That is why they must hide their faces.”

“Furthermore, suggesting that federal law enforcement officers are ‘snatching’ people off the streets is also false,” Foley said. “It’s offensive to the men and women who risk their lives every day to uphold the rule of law. On the contrary, every arrest or detention is pursuant to and sanctioned by federal law.”

Her comments came weeks after reported assaults on law enforcement officers in a Worcester neighborhood on May 8.

In May, the city of Worcester released body camera footage after chaos erupted when a crowd surrounded and assaulted police officers trying to detain Brazilian national Rosane Ferreira de Oliveira, 40, who is in the country illegally and faces previous criminal assault charges, federal authorities said.

“The U.S. attorney’s office stands in support of our federal law enforcement partners whose mission it is to protect the residents of Massachusetts,” Foley said Wednesday, “regardless of the noise being generated by politicians who either do not understand federal law or simply believe our nation’s immigration laws should not be enforced.”

“We will not apologize for doing our job,” Foley said.

When asked about Foley’s comments on Wednesday, Wu said, “The U.S. Attorney is attacking me for saying what Bostonians see with their own eyes.”

“We know this is happening,” Wu said. “We have seen, if not the video of it, we have seen it directly in our communities and it is undermining our efforts at the local level to keep people safe because it is spreading fear that undermines the trust with local police.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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