Mayor Michelle Wu: Boston 'prepared to take legal action' if ICE deportation surge violates laws

Grace Zokovitch, Boston Herald on Sep 8, 2025

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BOSTON — As ICE launches a new surge of deportations in the Massachusetts region, Mayor Michelle Wu said Boston is readying to take legal action if the federal operation violates any laws.

“We expect that federal law enforcement will abide by the constitution and laws of this City, Commonwealth, and country, and we are prepared to take legal action at any evidence to the contrary,” Wu said in a statement responding to the latest surge Sunday.

The latest surge of immigration enforcement, dubbed “Operation Patriot 2.0,” had launched in unspecified areas of the state as of Thursday, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons stated. The operation is a follow up to a surge in Massachusetts starting in May, which reportedly resulted in nearly 1,500 immigration arrests.

As of Saturday, over 100 people had been arrested by federal law enforcement as a part of Operation Patriot 2.0, ICE officials stated. The federal agency did not immediately state how long the operation will last, how many agents are involved, or which area of the state are being targeted.

The latest surge reportedly involves assistance from the Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Agency, Diplomatic Security and more federal agencies. ICE officials have stated they are targeting immigrants in the country illegally who have a criminal record.

Wu did not specify what potential legal action against the federal law enforcement may look like Sunday.

On Thursday, the Justice Department also filed a lawsuit against Boston, Wu and the local police department seeking to negate the city’s Trust Act, a 2014 city law limiting local cooperation with federal immigration actions. In a release following the lawsuit, Attorney General Pam Bondi called Boston “among the worst sanctuary offenders in America.”

Wu reiterated Sunday that, “as ordered in the Boston Trust Act, no Boston police or local resources will be co-opted into federal immigration enforcement and their mass deportation agenda.”

The mayor spoke out against ICE actions in the region Sunday.

“For months, ICE has refused to provide any information about their activities in Boston and refuses to issue warrants, while we hear reports of ICE agents taking parents as they are dropping their kids off at school,” said Wu. “That does not make our community safer.”

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