BOSTON (AP) — As Mayor Michelle Wu prepares to go to Congress to defend Boston’s protections of immigrant communities, the city is in a war of words with the Trump administration and Republican representatives over how much police should support deportations.
President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan teed off against Boston’s police commissioner in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying there are at least nine accused “child rapists” in jail who local authorities won’t turn over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He promised to come to Boston and “bring hell with him.”
ICE public affairs didn’t respond to a request for information about these cases, and Homan didn’t elaborate on any travel plans.
Boston isn’t alone: ICE has accused state and local authorities around the country of failing to cooperate to get people charged with violent crimes deported.
At Wednesday’s hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Wu will be joined by the mayors of Chicago, New York and Denver, all caught in the crosshairs of what it means to be a “sanctuary city.”
A clash between federal, state and local laws
ICE is empowered to enforce immigration laws nationwide but needs help from state and local authorities to achieve deportations on a large scale. It asks police and sheriffs to alert them to certain people it wants to deport and to hold them for up to 48 hours so that immigration officers have time to arrive and take custody.
Sanctuary cities limit such cooperation when it involves people accused but not yet convicted of crimes, following state or local laws that prohibit turning people over to ICE merely for lacking legal permission to be in the country.
“If someone’s committed a serious offense, our position is that we want to hold them accountable,” Sussex County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said. “What you want to do with their immigration consequences or deportation, if any, after we hold them accountable, that’s up to the federal government. That’s up to ICE.”
Handing over defendants would make it harder to gain cooperation from immigrants when investigating crimes, and fail to deliver justice for the victims, Hayden argued.
Will deporting defendants and witnesses make cities safer?
“We don’t want people’s fear of immigration consequences of a deportation to have a chilling effect on our ability to hold people accountable,” Hayden said. “Even in this modern day, where we have phones and cameras and recordings and everything, we still need victims and witnesses and people to come in and testify and tell their story in order to prove a case.”
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox told WCVB-TV that police don’t have authority to enforce federal immigration laws or hand over people just because they’re in the country illegally — their immigration status isn’t “relevant to public safety,” he said.
The Boston Trust Act, updated in 2018, allows police to cooperate with ICE on “significant public safety, such as human trafficking, child exploitation, drug and weapons trafficking, and cybercrimes, while refraining from involvement in civil immigration enforcement.”
The city also must follow a 2017 ruling by the state’s highest court, which forbids Massachusetts authorities from holding a person otherwise entitled to release from custody based solely on a federal request.
How have leaders responded to the pressure?
Wu, a Democrat up for reelection this year, said it was “clueless” and “insulting” for Homan to attack the commissioner, and that she wants Boston be a welcoming place for immigrants. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called Homan’s comments “unproductive” and ”not how you engage as a member of law enforcement.”
Hayden said he would welcome a “civil conversation” about immigration but “if you want to bring hell with you, don’t bother coming. Hell is not welcome here in Boston.”
Faith leaders met with the mayor and said members of their congregations now fear going to a food pantry or answering their door to receive donations.
“The fear is not for just those who are undocumented, and that’s one of the realities that we hope those in Washington will hear,” Arlene Hall, a native of Jamaica and a minister at the Deliverance Temple Worship Center in Dorchester, told reporters. “The fear is much deeper and wider because of what is being done.”
Wu’s mayoral opponent, Democrat Josh Kraft, said in a statement that he supports “removing violent criminals” but opposes mass deportations and Homan’s “inflammatory rhetoric about a city he does not know.”
What could happen to cities that don’t comply?
An ominous video from the Republican-led committee portrays Wu and several other big city mayors as villains, with Kentucky GOP Rep. James Comer saying: “If they are going to continue to disobey the law, then I think we should cut as much of their federal funding as we can cut.”
The Trump administration has begun taking legal action, accusing Illinois, Chicago and Cook County of violating federal law by not cooperating. Lawmakers in more than 20 states are pursuing legislation against so-called sanctuary cities, The Associated Press found using the bill-tracking software Plural.
And some of those communities are striking back: The Boston suburbs of Chelsea and Somerville filed suit accusing the Trump administration of violating their constitutional rights.
