ICE crackdowns intensify across Boston as sanctuary cities face Trump’s
latest operation
[September 16, 2025]
By LEAH WILLINGHAM, MICHAEL CASEY and HOLLY RAMER
BOSTON (AP) — Immigrants are being detained while going to work, outside
courthouses, and at store parking lots in Metro Boston as President
Donald Trump targets so-called sanctuary cities in his effort to ramp up
immigration enforcement.
As families hole up in homes — afraid to leave and risk detainment —
advocates are reporting an increased presence of unmarked U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles sitting in parking lots and
other public areas throughout immigrant communities, where agents
appeared to target work vans. One man captured a video of three
landscapers who were working on the Saugus Town Hall property being
arrested after agents smashed their truck window.
Just north of Boston, the city of Everett canceled its annual Hispanic
Heritage Month festival after its mayor said it wouldn't be right to
"hold a celebration at a time when community members may not feel safe
attending.”
The actions have been praised by public officials like New Hampshire
Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who signed legislation this year banning
sanctuary city policies in her state, vowing not to let New Hampshire
“go the way of Massachusetts." ICE this summer began utilizing a New
Hampshire airport about an hour from Boston to transport New England
detainees.
However, others argue that ICE's presence in Massachusetts is doing more
harm than good.
“This is really increasing the fear in communities, which is already
incredibly high,” said Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
Trump aims at so-called ‘sanctuaries’
Cities like Boston and Chicago — where Mayor Brandon Johnson has also
condemned the Trump administration’s recent immigration crackdown,
calling it an example of “tyranny” — have become targets for enforcement
in recent days. Trump also threatened to potentially deploy the National
Guard to Chicago, though he had wavered on a military deployment last
week.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 4 filed a lawsuit against Mayor
Michelle Wu, the city of Boston and its police department over its
sanctuary city policies, claiming they’re interfering with immigration
enforcement. In response, Wu accused Trump of “attacking cities to hide
his administration’s failures.”
Now, ICE has launched an operation it called “Patriot 2.0" on the heels
of a May crackdown where nearly 1,500 immigrants were detained in
Massachusetts. Its latest operation came days before a preliminary
mayoral election, where incumbent Wu won easily. The mayor has become a
frequent target over her defense of the city and its so-called sanctuary
policies, which limit cooperation between local police and federal
immigration agents.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Boston
surge would focus on “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens”
living in Massachusetts.
“Sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and
harbor criminals but protect them at the peril of law-abiding American
citizens," she said in a press release early last week, which detailed
the arrest of seven individuals by ICE, including a 38-year-old man from
Guatemala who had previously been arrested on assault-related charges.
The agency did not respond to requests from The Associated Press about
the number of immigrants detained since “Patriot 2.0” began.
Detainees housed in facilities across New England
ICE has contracts to detain people at multiple correctional facilities
across New England, including county jails as well as the federal prison
in Berlin, New Hampshire, and a publicly-owned, privately operated
prison in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
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Protesters picket near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
regional field office, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Burlington,
Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Volunteers monitoring flights carrying detainees from New
Hampshire’s Portsmouth International Airport at Pease have
documented the transfer of more than 300 individuals since early
August, with at least five flights per week transferring people from
New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts. All of the
detainees have been in shackles, said David Holt, who has been
organizing regular protests at Pease.
Protesters gathered at venues like the ICE office in Burlington,
where three participants were arrested on trespassing charges.
Families in hiding as more ICE sightings reported
Luce, the Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, staffed its
hotline with interpreters who speak English, Spanish, Portuguese,
French, Mandarin, and Haitian Creole to collect information about
ICE sightings. The organization put out a call for volunteers who
speak languages like Cape Verdean Kriolu, Nepali and Vietnamese to
help manage the influx.
Kevin Lam, co-executive director with the Asian American Resource
Workshop, a community group that works on immigration and other
issues, said they have seen a “spike” in ICE activity, including
five Vietnamese residents from a Boston neighborhood who were
detained last week.
He and other advocates said many immigrants have expressed fear
about everyday tasks like picking up their kids at school and riding
on public transportation. However, he said many are still attending
work, with some at risk for detention who are also the primary
caretakers of their families.
"Many of them are like, ‘Yeah, it is a risk every day when I step
out, but I need to work to be able to provide for my family,’” he
said.
Asylum-seekers and other legal immigrants targeted
Republican Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said she is “100%
supportive” of ICE's latest operation in the state and that her
office will not hesitate to prosecute immigrants without legal
status who commit crimes. Noncriminals have also been swept up in
raids that ICE calls “collateral arrests.”
"We stand ready to charge individuals who violate all federal laws,
including those who enter our country without authorization after
being deported and those who assault federal law enforcement
officers or impede or interfere with federal officers doing their
jobs," she said in a statement to the AP.
Advocates like Lam pushed back on claims that ICE agents are only
targeting criminals, saying that with fewer protections for
asylum-seekers and others who are here legally, the strategy seems
to be going well beyond “bad immigrants” with records.
Alexandra Peredo Carroll, director of legal Education and advocacy
at the Boston-based Mabel Center for Immigrant Justice, said the
Trump administration is "trying to fit folks into this narrative of
being illegal or having broken the law, when in fact, many of these
are individuals who are actually going through the legal process.”
“I think you’re going to see more and more how families are going to
be torn apart, how individuals with no criminal history, with
pending forms of relief, pending applications are just going to be
rounded up,” she said.
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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.
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