Most prominent Massachusetts Republicans are declining to weigh in on whether individuals should reach out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement about immigrants working at specific businesses. A Boston University student took credit for a raid on an Allston car wash that resulted in nine detentions earlier this month.
The student’s self-described actions raised a question that is both practical and philosophical as the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration continues: What role, if any, should people who support the government’s deportation efforts play in facilitating them?
John Deaton, who recently launched a campaign for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Ed Markey, broke the silence.
“Do I support this particular case? No, because it runs the risk of clearly profiling, racial profiling,” Deaton said. “How do you know someone’s legal status by looking at them? And there’s an inherent risk of profiling brown and Black people in this country, and I’m never going to openly support that.”
BU junior Zac Segal, who is president of the BU College Republicans, posted on X and linked to a Boston.com story about the raid, writing: “I’ve been calling ICE for months on end. This week they finally responded to my request to detain these criminals.
“As someone who lives in the neighborhood, I’ve seen how American jobs are being given away to those with no right to be here,” he added. “Pump up the numbers!”
The Boston.com story Segal linked to stated that all of the nine detained employees had work permits. However, in a statement, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said all nine workers were in the country illegally.
McLaughlin also questioned Segal’s claims about his role in the raid, telling GBH News: “The operation was highly targeted and relied on law enforcement intelligence — not your silly rumor.”
In a follow-up post on November 13, Segal linked to a Boston Globe story about his purported involvement in the raid and wrote, “We must stand up for this country.”
According to his biography on BU’s track and field website, Segal is from London, England, though the Globe reported that in a now-unavailable Facebook post he said he was “originally from Miami Beach.”
Segal also interns for GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve. The Globe quoted Shortsleeve saying at a Thursday event that Segal is an “active intern” on his campaign and that he was “not here today to talk about tweets from a college kid.”
The paper then added a comment from Shortsleeve that left his personal opinion about Segal’s claims ambiguous.
“What I can tell you, where I stand on this is we’ve got to enforce the law,” Shortsleeve said, according to the Globe. “We should start with [deporting] the worst first. I believe due process will play out as it has in many other cases.”
On Friday, GBH News reached out to Shortsleeve, his fellow Republican gubernatorial candidates Mike Kennealy and Mike Minogue, Deaton, and Mass. GOP chair Amy Carnevale to ask: Do you support individuals calling ICE to report immigrants working at a specific business? And if so, under what circumstances?
As of mid-Friday afternoon, despite multiple follow-up inquiries, only Deaton answered.
After condemning Segal’s purported behavior, Deaton offered two caveats.
”Now, obviously there’s case-by-case exceptions. If you see a crime being committed, you shouldn’t hesitate to call,“ he said. ”But the blame here — this highlights the fact that our elected leaders are not doing their job to pass immigration reform in this country.“
The Massachusetts Democratic Party has called Segal’s actions “abhorrent” and called on Shortsleeve “and every Republican candidate to denounce this hateful behavior.”
Sarah Betancourt contributed reporting.
