ICE launches immigration crackdown in Massachusetts: Report

By Anadolu staff

ISTANBUL (AA) - US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has launched an operation in Massachusetts, with the capital Boston at the center of the crackdown, according to a report by the New York Times.

The initiative, called Operation Patriot 2.0, began over the weekend and is expected to run for several weeks, the report said, citing officials familiar with the plan. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the effort is aimed at arresting “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens living in the state.”

In a statement Saturday, DHS issued a stark warning: “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 comes just days before the Trump administration is expected to begin a similar crackdown in Chicago and as immigration arrests rise in the nation’s capital, Washington, DC.

A US official who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the effort publicly, told the Times that the agency has prepared plans for an even broader surge of enforcement in the coming weeks.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has drawn criticism from the administration for her support of the city’s sanctuary policies. DHS directly called her out in its statement, accusing her of putting “public safety threats above the interests of law-abiding American citizens.”

The Justice Department also filed a lawsuit this past week challenging Boston’s sanctuary city ordinance, known as the Boston Trust Act.

“The City of Boston and its mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement, according to the Times.

ICE officials said the current operation is focused on immigrants who were released from local custody despite federal detainers. Some of those targeted live outside Boston but were freed from city jails, a homeland security official told the paper.