White House calls out Boston Mayor Wu for stoking ‘hatred against American law enforcement’

BOSTON — The White House publicly called out Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Thursday for “her disgusting, dangerous attacks on law enforcement” hours after she impugned federal agents at a campaign rally.

Thursday’s response from the highest level of government came hours after Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, in a video message posted on social media, called out Wu for her “ridiculous rhetoric and inflammatory comments” that he said are putting federal agents and officers in danger.

“Law enforcement is common sense. Politicians need to stop putting my people in danger. I’m not asking them to stop. I’m demanding that they stop,” Lyons, a native of South Boston and a graduate of Boston College High School in Dorchester, said Thursday.

On Wednesday, Wu volleyed additional criticism against federal law enforcement while speaking about masks worn by some federal officers who are enforcing immigration laws.

Both Lyons and U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said earlier this week that federal 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.

Wu, while discussing the masks worn by some law enforcement on Wednesday, brought up the prominent New England neo-Nazi group Nationalist Social Club, also known as NSC-131.

At a campaign rally Thursday and in a recent interview with WBUR, Wu likened ICE immigration officers to “secret police.”

Wu, who is seeking re-election, repeated that phrase at a campaign event on Thursday morning.

“We’ve seen it in our neighborhoods, on our streets, and what other definition of secret police is there when people are getting snatched off the street by masked individuals,” Wu said, “not being told where they’re going, disappeared until somehow someone finds some information, not given justification for why they are being taken.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson addressed Wu’s recent comments in a statement late Thursday afternoon.

“Boston Mayor Michelle Wu doubled down on her disgusting, dangerous attacks on law enforcement yesterday when she compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to neo-Nazis — just days after the so-called ‘sanctuary city’ mayor smeared ICE and other federal agents as ‘secret police,’" Jackson said.

“If the mayor had any shame, she’d be embarrassed for fanning the flames of hate while ICE agents face unprecedented threats to themselves and their families,” Jackson said.

On Monday, federal officials announced the arrest of nearly 1,500 people in Massachusetts, in the month of May alone, who are living in the U.S. illegally.

More than half of those arrests, federal authorities said, were of people with ‘significant’ criminal backgrounds -- convicted murderers sought by Interpol, child rapists, drug traffickers.

“And so we hear these numbers that are thrown out there 1,500 or 300, left and right, to prove or to suggest that some campaign goal of mass deportation is being fulfilled and that it’s supposedly about some criminal behavior,” Wu said during her campaign event on Thursday.

Jackson denounced Wu’s remarks from Washington.

“She’s denigrating the same agents who just removed nearly 1,500 criminal illegal immigrants from the streets of her state in the largest-ever immigration enforcement operation,” Jackson said.

Also in May, Worcester Police body camera footage captured a crowd of people surrounding and assaulting federal law enforcement officers trying to detain a Brazilian national who is in the country illegally and faces previous criminal assault charges, federal authorities said.

The White House response on Thursday also included photographs of 10 of the nearly 1,500 foreign nationals who are in the U.S. illegally who were arrested in Massachusetts in May.

The immigration enforcement operation dubbed “Operation Patriot” cracked down on the worst of criminals living illegally in Massachusetts, officials said. They include:

• A 45-year-old Guatemalan national who has a conviction for murder in Boston.
• A 24-year-old citizen of Brazil who has an active Interpol Red Notice out of Brazil, where he is wanted for murder.
• A 55-year-old Salvadoran national with an active Interpol Red Notice for aggravated homicide, robbery, aggravated kidnap and theft in El Salvador. ICE officers arrested him in Lynn.
• A 69-year-old registered sex offender and citizen of Uruguay convicted of indecent assault and battery on a 7-year-old girl.
• A 32-year-old Guatemalan national and registered sex offender who was convicted for aggravated rape of a child with a ten-year age gap and has pending charges for five counts of indecent assault and battery.
• A 37-year-old Honduran national whose most recent arrest in Fall River was for rape, indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over, witness intimidation, and kidnapping of a minor by relative.
• A 22-year-old Colombian national charged with kidnapping, aggravated rape, and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older.
• A 29-year-old Brazilian national charged in Edgartown with aggravated rape of a child by force, possession of child pornography and dissemination of obscene material. He has and additional arrest in Edgartown for assault and battery (family) and kidnapping.
• A 48-year-old Salvadoran national whose criminal history includes charges of aggravated rape of child by force, indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, and open and gross lewdness.
• A 40-year-old Guatemalan national charged with assault and battery dangerous weapon (a hammer), threatening to commit crime, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a vehicle), assault and battery on a family member, strangulation/suffocation and intimidation of witness. ICE officers arrested him in Lynn.

“Because of dangerous, unhinged smears from the Left, ICE officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults,” Jackson said. “President Trump is keeping his promise to the American people to deport illegal aliens. It’s disturbing that Democrats like Mayor Wu would side with illegal immigrants over Americans and stoke hatred against American law enforcement,” Jackson said.

Boston 25 has reached out to Wu for comment.

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

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