ICE Has Begun Immigration Crackdown in Massachusetts

The operation includes Boston, whose mayor has drawn the administration’s ire for speaking out against the growing scale of its immigration actions.

The Trump administration has started an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Massachusetts, saying it was targeting “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens living in the state.”

In a statement on Saturday about the operation, called Patriot 2.0, the Department of Homeland Security struck a harsh note: “If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”

The operation began late this week and was expected to last several weeks, according to two sources with knowledge of the initiative. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the activity publicly. One U.S. official who also was not authorized to speak publicly said the agency had prepared plans for a wider surge of immigration enforcement starting this month.

The operation in Massachusetts began just days before the Trump administration was expected to kick off an immigration crackdown in Chicago, and as immigration arrests have ramped up in Washington.

Top Trump officials had previously hinted that they planned to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities, which limit local police cooperation with federal immigration officials.

In its statement on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security called out Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston, who has drawn the administration’s ire for speaking out against the scale of its immigration actions.

“Sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but also place these public safety threats above the interests of law-abiding American citizens,” the statement said.

From the beginning of the first Trump administration, top immigration officials have sought to force progressive cities to cooperate, particularly in local jails, where ICE officials prefer to pick up immigrants directly.

Earlier this week, Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said to expect ramped-up enforcement in multiple sanctuary cities, saying they would “flood the zone.”

One homeland security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said Operation Patriot 2.0 was focused on targeting immigrants who had been released from custody despite ICE seeking to pick them up from local jails.

The scope of the operation extends beyond Boston, the official said, because some of those released from custody in the city live outside it.

This week, the Justice Department sued Boston for its sanctuary city policy, known as the Boston Trust Act, seeking to persuade a federal judge to invalidate the measure.

“The City of Boston and its mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America — they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “If Boston won’t protect its citizens from illegal alien crime, this Department of Justice will.”

Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, told a Boston-area radio show in August that his agency would make its presence known in the region.

“We’re going to keep making Boston safe, as she’s failing to do with the sanctuary city policies,” he said, referring to Ms. Wu.

He added: “Now you’re going to see more ICE agents come to Boston to make sure that we take these public safety threats out, that she wants to let go back in the communities.”

The agency has conducted a regular cadence of operations in Massachusetts. In March, ICE arrested 370 immigrants in the state, of which 165 were so-called collateral arrests, or undocumented immigrants who were not targeted but were in the area of the operation. In May, ICE arrested nearly 1,500 immigrants in the state.

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