Local groups report major spike in ICE detentions around Massachusetts

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining and arresting people in the Boston area in far greater numbers this past week, local watchdogs and community groups tell GBH News.

ICE detentions ranging from Worcester, Framingham, Waltham, Boston and beyond were captured on video and on social media and reported by community members. Advocates with the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of MA tell GBH News that they’ve identified more than 50 ICE arrests since Sunday.

Many immigrants and local advocates are now wondering if this is the second “surge” that ICE’s acting director promised last month. In March, ICE detained 370 people in the Boston area in six days. For comparison, in all of 2024, federal data shows that around 900 people were arrested by ICE across New England.

A media representative for ICE said that for “reasons of officer safety, ICE does not comment on ongoing operations” and did not respond to questions about specific incidents. The agency recently posted a press releases related to detentions of one individual charged with armed robbery on Wednesday, and a Guatemalan man charged with a sex crime against a child.

On Monday, 25-year-old Daniel Orellana was in Framingham on his way to work when he was stopped near a gas station and detained. His partner, Zulema Alfaro, said she didn’t hear from him or have any idea where he was until 17 hours later, when he called from an ICE detention facility in Plymouth. Alfaro said agents had shown Orellana a photo of another man and asked if it was him, or if he knew him. He said no, and that he wanted to go to work and call his boss.

“They didn’t give him an opportunity to talk — they just took him, and took his wallet and his phone. They left him in a car for five hours while they went and got more people,” she told GBH in a Spanish-language interview.

She said Orellana was originally from Guatemala and was studying in university there to become a lawyer, then a judge. He fled due to threats to his family and violence from gangs — and has been working on an asylum application in the United States while taking English classes.

“He has no criminal history here, or in Guatemela — no interactions with the police, either. He works in the community, he goes to church and he works for his family,” she said.

Multiple members of one Worcester family were also detained by ICE and arrested by Worcester police this week, several witnesses tell GBH News.

A father who lives on Eureka Street was detained Wednesday. The following day, advocates told GBH News that vehicles were surveilling the family’s home as early as 7 a.m.

Hours later, the grandmother in the family was detained by ICE as a large crowd of community members gathered at the scene.

“When the woman of the family called her own elderly mother to seek help with the infant, ICE agents then detained the elderly woman without a warrant,” read a press release from the LUCE network.

Neighbors called Worcester Police, who arrived to respond to the crowd.

Worcester Police spokesperson Sean Murtha told GBH News by email that Worcester officers were not called until after the ICE action was underway.

“WPD officers responded to a call that a hostile crowd had surrounded a federal agent,” he wrote. “Two individuals were placed under arrest by Worcester Police officers as a result of their behavior after WPD officers arrived.”

In a statement, city manager Erik Batista said officers responding to the emergency calls arrived to a volatile scene.

“Unfortunately, two individuals were arrested after several attempts by WPD officers to deescalate the chaotic situation, which included the endangerment of an infant,” he said. “My heart goes out to all those impacted by today’s events.”

Eyewitnesses said they arrested a community activist as well as a 16-year-old child related to the family.

Dálida Rocha, a local resident and executive director of Neighbor to Neighbor, arrived near the end of the confrontation.

“The one thing I was able to see is the young woman, who’s a minor, being taken away in handcuffs,” Rocha said.

Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj was at the site of the arrests and joined with neighbors to form a human ring around the family.

“I am also a mother, the daughter of immigrants, and her neighbor — I will not sit idly while our families are brutally torn apart,” she said in a statement. “The way immigrants in Worcester and across the Commonwealth are being targeted and terrorized by this federal administration for deportation is absolutely unconstitutional.”

Worcester mayor Joseph Petty issued a statement that he was “deeply disturbed” by what happened and that he has requested a full report from the city manager.

“I am devastated to hear about the separation of a family, especially with Mother’s Day around the corner. The fear of ICE tearing a family apart is the worst nightmare of so many in our city,” Petty said. “Simply put, we cannot have this happen in our community.”

Community organizers are taking it upon themselves to publicly track the activity — a hotline, organized by an immigrant advocacy network LUCE, has seen an uptick of calls about ICE this week.

From Sunday to Wednesday afternoon, there were 150 calls to the hotline about suspected federal immigration enforcement. Usually the number of calls for that time frame averages at 74 —a 100% increase.

The most calls came from Waltham, Brighton, East Boston, Everett, Lynn and the Merrimack Valley.

After a call to the hotline, a group of volunteers is dispatched to try to verify the situation and avoid rumors from spreading — and share verified information with the community.

Sometimes the organization uses news reports for confirmation, as was the case in Great Barrington, where immigration agents arrested two men in an apartment building.

Jonathan Paz is part of Fuerza, a neighborhood watch group in Waltham, which is part of the LUCE network. Pax said there’s an “alarming rate of activity.”

“In Waltham, particularly, we see what seems to be more militarized operations in apprehending community members,” he said in an interview.

On Sunday, Paz witnessed seven vehicles that pulled over one car, where an adult man was driving with a child. Agents looked through the 10-year-old’s phone and let the child go, but detained the adult. The man was a friend of the child’s father, Paz said.

“They would not engage with us when we asked if they had a warrant to rip that individual out of their car,” he said. Paz said the boy asked him later, “‘Isn’t this over the top?’ If a 10-year-old kid can figure out this isn’t normal behavior, I’m curious to see what constitutional officers in Massachusetts are doing — like, what is Governor [Maura] Healey doing to protect communities?”

Healey’s office referred to a press scrum on Wednesday where she addressed Orellana’s arrest in Framingham, saying she “hadn’t heard about” the case.

“We continue to monitor things,” she said. “I’ve said at the outset that we’re not a sanctuary state, therefore if people have been convicted of crimes, charged with crimes, and they’re not here lawfully, then they’re subject to action by ICE.”

Two more men were detained by ICE in their East Boston homes recently, community groups confirmed to GBH News.

“We have actually been involved in supporting one of the victims of the seizures, because in every one of these cases, there’s a family that’s left behind,” said Neenah Estrella-Luna, a member of Mutual Aid Eastie.

She said there’s also been immigration enforcement vehicles spotted in the Central Square Plaza next to Shaw’s in East Boston, including on Wednesday.

Robert Goulston contributed reporting.