The City of Boston is demanding answers related to federal immigration arrests within its borders, and greater transparency from Trump administration officials.
Mayor Michelle Wu signed an executive order on Tuesday, saying it was in response to the “secret police tactics that have been deployed around the country in immigration enforcement.”
As part of the order, the city will regularly submit Federal Freedom of Information Act requests to the Department of Homeland Security to try and find out who is being detained and on what grounds.
“This federal administration fundamentally does not understand Boston,” said Wu in announcing the order. “We are taking every possible action in our city to push back and 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 that the federal government withheld $48 million from Boston unless the city complied with what she called an “ideological wish list.” She said that money was previously awarded to provide housing, job training, health care to more than 2,000 people, including veterans and people fleeing domestic violence. The city has sued in federal court to reverse the money being withheld.
Many U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have conducted arrests without wearing badges and while masked. Wu said Boston police do the opposite and also wear body cameras that document interactions with the public. Those practices, she said, build trust in the community and foster open communication. Wu accused ICE of undermining community trust and public safety.
“My advice to Tom Homan and ICE is to take a time out. Re-assess what you are doing and how you are doing it,” she said, referring to President Donald Trump’s border czar, with whom she has verbally sparred with in recent months.
District 5 Councilor Enrique Pepén said he and other councilors have received emails and calls from immigrant residents scared to send their children to school, and business owners worried about their employees coming to work. There have been multiple ICE arrests in Mattapan and Roslindale in the past months.
“He’s using lies and myths saying that only the criminals are being taken away,” Pepén said of Trump. “But in reality, it’s hard working people that are here legally — with TPS, with worker permits, with student visas — and they are being taken away.”
Lenita Reason, Executive Director of the Brazilian Worker Center in Allston, was at Wu’s announcement. She said her organization has helped many families of detained individuals and that greater transparency is needed around why and where they’re being detained.
She said a number of immigrants with no prior criminal record have been detained and transferred to facilities in southern states with little information given to their families.
She cited one man who has lived in the U.S. for 26 years and owns a small business. He was detained two weeks ago and sent to Texas, she said.
“The only way we know that he is in Texas is because the community helped his wife to retain an attorney and was able to find out where he is,” said Reason.
