Sept. 6 (UPI) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement began an immigration law enforcement surge in Massachusetts and Boston this week, while challenging their sanctuary laws in federal court.
The Trump administration this week began the surge, dubbed Operation Patriot 2.0, in Massachusetts and Boston, The New York Times reported.
The surge is in advance of a similar surge anticipated in Chicago and another that is already underway in Washington, D.C., and comes as the Trump administration has started challenging city and state sanctuary laws in federal court.
The Justice Department on Thursday challenged the legality of Boston’s 11-year-old sanctuary city law, called the Boston Trust Act, which does not allow city police to transfer detainees to ICE or hold them for possible federal immigration law violations.
The federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts names Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, the city of Boston, the Boston Police Department and Police Commissioner Michael Cox as defendants.
The DOJ has accused them of violating the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause that gives federal law precedence over state and local laws.
The defendants also “interfere with federal law and create obstacles to the enforcement of federal immigration law,” the DOJ said, which asked the court to invalidate the sanctuary laws.
Responding to the lawsuit and enforcement surge, Wu accused the Trump administration of “targeting the very people who built our country and our cities,” WBTS-CD reported.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said the state needs other kinds of assistance from the federal government.
“It’s disrespectful to local and state law enforcement, who work hard every day,” Healey said.
“What we need from the Trump administration is funding for cops, funding for community policing [and] funding for law enforcement,” she added.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons earlier said the agency would “flood” Boston and other sanctuary locales with federal immigration enforcement agents.
Justice Department officials also warned Wu and leaders in other sanctuary cities and jurisdictions that they would lose federal funding and potentially face prosecution for allegedly obstructing federal immigration enforcement efforts.
While Wu and Healey oppose the federal immigration law enforcement surge, ICE officials on Thursday reported the capture and removal of an accused child rapist in Boston.
Agents with the ICE Boston office removed Albert George Davis, 59, from the United States on Aug. 21 and deported him to Jamaica, the agency said in a press release.
Jamaican officials sought Davis since 2020, when he was accused of raping a child in Jamaica and fled to the United States to avoid prosecution.
“He had been hiding out in our community for five years, but now he will be forced to face justice in his native country,” said David Wesling, deputy director of the ICE Enforcement and Removals Office in Boston.
“ICE Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by aggressively locating, arresting and removing criminal alien offenders from our New England communities,” Wesling added.