BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu volleyed additional criticism against federal law enforcement on Wednesday while speaking about masks worn by federal officers who are enforcing immigration laws.
Acting Director Todd Lyons and U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said this week that federal agents and officers have been “doxed” on social media, and sometimes wear masks while on duty and making immigration arrests after officers, and their families, have received death threats.
In a recent interview with WBUR, Wu likened ICE immigration officers to “secret police.”
Foley, in a video message on social media Wednesday morning, condemned Wu’s comments, calling them “reckless and inflammatory statements.” The U.S. Attorney again cited the increasing threats faced by federal law enforcement in doing their job.
It didn’t end there.
Wu, when asked later Wednesday about Foley’s remarks and while discussing masks worn by some law enforcement, brought up the prominent New England neo-Nazi group Nationalist Social Club, also known as NSC-131.
“I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks,” Wu told Boston 25. “We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks: NSC-131 routinely wears masks.”
Boston’s mayor added: “The action of ICE officers who are wearing masks are intimidating residents, it’s undermining safety in our communities and it’s making it harder for Boston Police to do their jobs effectively as well.”
When asked for comment late Wednesday afternoon, an ICE spokesperson said, “Our officers wear masks for their safety and the safety of their families.”
“We have already had officers doxed online – some have had their wives’ and children’s social media accounts made public and even schools where their children attended,“ the ICE spokesperson said. ”There are some sick and crazy people out there who would like to see harm come to our officers and their families."
“Our officers risk their safety every day to prioritize the safety of all Americans, regardless of race or religion,” the ICE spokesperson said.
Wednesday’s exchange wasn’t the first between Wu and a federal official.
Border czar Tom Homan has criticized Wu and other Massachusetts politicians and communities for not complying with federal authorities who are trying to apprehend hard criminals who are in the country illegally.
In March, Homan traveled to Boston to oversee a federal law enforcement operation over several days.
“I made a promise at CPAC that I was going to Boston after reading about numerous illegal alien child rapists walking the streets of Boston and Massachusetts,” Homan said in a post on X in March.
“ICE had to find and arrest these illegal alien rapists because Massachusetts and Boston are sanctuaries that refuse to cooperate with ICE,” Homan said. “They would rather release these animals back into the community rather than honor ICE detainers or notify ICE when they are scheduled to be released.”
“Mayor Wu later testified that I was lying,” Homan said in his March post of Wu, who testified before Congress with other mayors on March 5 about Boston’s sanctuary city policies. Wu hired a Boston law firm to prepare for the congressional hearing.
Wu, meanwhile, said Wednesday that Boston Police officers do not wear masks.
“Boston Police make arrests, they are on the street 24 hours a day, they are in very complicated daily interactions,” Wu said. “They do all of this without wearing masks, displaying their badges publicly, with body cameras that document the interactions that take place with full transparency because we have nothing to hide.”
Earlier Wednesday, Foley denounced Wu’s comments targeting federal agents and officers.
“Referring to federal agents as ‘secret police’ is offensive,” Foley said. “There are no secret police.”
“ICE agents along with other federal law enforcement partners are making immigration arrests. That is no secret,” Foley said. “They are arresting individuals who are here illegally, which is a violation of federal law. Every enforcement action is conducted within the bounds of the Constitution and our laws, with oversight, legal justification and accountability.”
“To claim otherwise is a gross misrepresentation and a disservice to the public,” Foley said.
Foley also spoke about the masks worn by federal agents and officers in her video message on Wednesday.
“Federal agents in marked jackets and vests are masking their faces because people like Mayor Wu have created false narratives about their mission,” Foley said. “Federal agents and their children are being threatened, doxed and assaulted. That is why they must hide their faces.”
Wu, later Wednesday, responded to Foley’s remarks.
“The US Attorney is attacking me for saying what Bostonians see with their own eyes,” Wu said. “We know this is happening. We have seen, if not the video of it, we have seen it directly in our communities and it is undermining our efforts at the local level to keep people safe because it is spreading fear that undermines the trust with local police.”
“We do things very differently in Boston and we are proud of how we do things,” Wu said. “We know there is more work to do and we hold ourselves to the very highest standards of accountability with our community, of being there when people need help, and of building a trust to do that right.”
Assaults against ICE officers are up 400 percent since this time period last year, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said late last month.
Lyons, a native of South Boston and a graduate of Boston College High School in Dorchester, said the surge in assaults on federal law enforcement officers is, in part, due to politicians who “are careless with their politically-motivated rhetoric.”
On Monday, he and Foley were among federal officials who announced the arrest of nearly 1,500 people in Massachusetts, in the month of May alone, who are living in the U.S. illegally.
More than half of those arrests, authorities said, were of people with ‘significant’ criminal backgrounds -- convicted murderers sought by Interpol, child rapists, drug traffickers.
His comments came weeks after reported assaults on law enforcement officers in a Worcester neighborhood on May 8.
On May 16, the city of Worcester released body camera footage after chaos erupted when a crowd surrounded and assaulted law enforcement officers.
A link to the full Worcester Police body camera video can be found here. ICE agents at the time were trying to detain Brazilian national Rosane Ferreira de Oliveira, 40, who is in the country illegally and faces previous criminal assault charges, federal authorities said.
Several people, including City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj and Worcester School Committee candidate Ashley Spring, are seen in the videos shouting angrily at the officers and pushing and shoving the officers. Haxhiaj has since been charged. Spring, 38, was arrested, accused of throwing an unknown substance at an officer.
“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not gonna let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” Lyons said Monday.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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