BOSTON — U.S. Attorney Leah Foley hosted a “year in review” media roundtable on Thursday.
Covered topics include the online sextortion network 764, and benefit fraud cases which have become a focus for her office.
“The thing that is most important to us is holding people accountable because if you really think there is no consequence to stealing this money, it’s almost like a perverse incentive,” Foley said.
Though, what stood out most was the dialogue surrounding immigration enforcement efforts in Massachusetts, which has seen two ICE surges within the last year.
“ICE continues to operate in Massachusetts. There are many arrests being made on a daily basis, a weekly basis. There have been a couple of high-profile ones that people might talk about before knowing the facts,” Foley said.
Officials locally and across the country have said that recent immigration enforcement efforts haven’t always targeted the most dangerous, with concerns of constitutional rights being violated.
“We have not received any evidence that unconstitutional targeting or arrests are being made in Massachusetts. If they are and the facts support those allegations, we will investigate it and prosecute it. This is not about targeting certain people, it is about removing people who have committed crimes, are alleged to have committed very serious crimes and are on our streets. It is about keeping the public safe,” Foley said. “I’m not going to speculate but enough with the ‘this is going on here, that’s going on there, and everyone’s just bad on ICE.’ These are federal officers who on a daily basis put their lives in jeopardy. They’re not doing it because they have any bias against a certain community. They are upholding federal law.”
Local regulations were recently put into effect surrounding immigration enforcement, including one from Gov. Maura Healey prohibiting ICE agents from using state property as staging areas.
“Federal officers follow federal law, and they are not going to enforce state law that is not applicable to them, but they will follow federal law,” Foley responded.
The U.S. Attorney also pointed out that her office has been doing this work at a time when about 25% of staff have been cut. She did say, however, that they are hiring which would bring staff back to around the 200 mark, which is where it was before the Department of Government Efficiency was put into effect.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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