<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ISLAMABAD: Immigrants in Metro Boston are being detained at workplaces, courthouses and store parking lots as President Donald Trump intensifies immigration enforcement targeting so-called sanctuary cities.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Advocacy groups report an increase in unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles staking out public areas and work vans in immigrant neighborhoods. 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, AP reported.<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just north of Boston, the city of Everett canceled its annual Hispanic Heritage Month festival after its mayor said it wouldn&#39;t be right to &quot;hold a celebration at a time when community members may not feel safe attending.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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 &ldquo;go the way of Massachusetts.&quot; ICE this summer began utilizing a New Hampshire airport about an hour from Boston to transport New England detainees. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, others argue that ICE&#39;s presence in Massachusetts is doing more harm than good. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;This is really increasing the fear in communities, which is already incredibly high,&rdquo; said Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trump aims at so-called &lsquo;sanctuaries&rsquo;<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cities like Boston and Chicago &mdash; where Mayor Brandon Johnson has also condemned the Trump administration&rsquo;s recent immigration crackdown, calling it an example of &ldquo;tyranny&rdquo; &mdash; 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. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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&rsquo;re interfering with immigration enforcement. In response, Wu accused Trump of &ldquo;attacking cities to hide his administration&rsquo;s failures.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now, ICE has launched an operation called &ldquo;Patriot 2.0&quot; 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. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the Boston surge would focus on &ldquo;the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens&rdquo; living in Massachusetts. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;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,&quot; 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. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The agency did not respond to requests from The Associated Press about the number of immigrants detained since &ldquo;Patriot 2.0&rdquo; began. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Detainees housed in facilities across New England<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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.<figure class="fr-media"><figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/b3b0bcd4-d2a7-45de-bd13-34c4bf50bf5c-AP25255595024013.jpg" alt="AP25255595024013.jpg" style="max-width: 100%;" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">In this photo obtained by the Associated Press, ICE detainees line up to board a flight at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease, N.H., on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo)</figcaption></figure></figure><span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Volunteers monitoring flights carrying detainees from New Hampshire&rsquo;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. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Protesters gathered at venues like the ICE office in Burlington, where three participants were arrested on trespassing charges. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 700; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Families in hiding as more ICE sightings reported<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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 &ldquo;spike&rdquo; in ICE activity, including five Vietnamese residents from a Boston neighborhood who were detained last week. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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 willing to risk being detained because they are the primary breadwinners for their families. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;Many of them are like, &lsquo;Yeah, it is a risk every day when I step out, but I need to work to be able to provide for my family,&rsquo;&rdquo; he said. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Asylum-seekers and other legal immigrants targeted<span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Republican Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said she is &ldquo;100% supportive&rdquo; of ICE&#39;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 &ldquo;collateral arrests.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&quot;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,&quot; she said in a statement to the AP. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">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 &ldquo;bad immigrants&rdquo; with records. <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alexandra Peredo Carroll, director of legal Education and advocacy at the Boston-based Mabel Center for Immigrant Justice, said the Trump administration is &quot;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.&rdquo; <span style="font-size: 18px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&ldquo;I think you&rsquo;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,&rdquo; she said.

Americas

 Immigrants in Metro Boston are being detained at workplaces, courthouses and store parking lots as President Donald Trump intensifies immigration enforcement targeting so-called sanctuary cities.

Articles tagged with "enforcement"

Trump intensifies ICE immigration crackdown in Boston