Mass. Gov. Healey slams ICE over migrant arrests on Nantucket, Vineyard
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said Wednesday she was just as surprised as anyone else to learn that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers had arrested 40 people on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard in a series of traffic stops.
'It was very disturbing, needless to say, to wake up to that news about that activity on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,' the Democratic governor said during an unrelated news conference at the State House.
But, she added, that's part of a larger and more disturbing pattern by ICE and President Donald Trump's White House, as agents have arrested and detained scores of people, some of whom ended up being legal U.S. residents.
'This is part of the problem that we're seeing with ICE across the country. And certainly here in Massachusetts, people are being picked up. We have no information about their circumstances,' Healey said. 'There have been real questions raised about due process and whether or not ICE and immigration officials are ... complying with due process here and in other states. And we need answers.'
Healey, a former two-term state attorney general, said the state is 'happy to cooperate with federal and local and state law enforcement when it comes to going out and chasing bad guys and putting them away.'
But a state court ruling forbids local police from making an arrest based on someone's immigration status. Local laws, such as one in Boston, also limit law enforcement cooperation.
And Healey, who has said Massachusetts is 'not a sanctuary state,' has also said the Massachusetts State Police cannot cooperate with ICE on civil immigration matters.
'What we're seeing, you know, are too many instances where real questions about due process are raised,' she said Wednesday. 'And more than anything, we have zero information. Local police chiefs have zero information about what's happening in their communities.'
It's one thing for officials to 'go after and target those who have committed crimes, who are here unlawfully,' she said, adding that it's still 'concerning when we see people, moms and dads being ripped away from families, um, neighbors, you know, coworkers taken away.
The 'fear and the uncertainty, the anxiety that is created in these communities, I think is totally unnecessary,' she concluded. 'I don't think that this was what we thought that ICE was supposed to be doing.'
Two of the Republicans vying for the 2026 gubernatorial nomination have called on state and local police to be more active in their cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
'If I was governor, on day one, the state police would be cooperating with ICE,' former MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve said, according to WBUR. 'I believe that all state, local, municipal police should be cooperating with ICE to make this state safer.'
Republican hopeful Mike Kennealy, who served as former Gov. Charlie Baker's housing czar, has been sharply critical of Healey's management of the state's migrant crisis.
We should be working with federal officials — not against them — to get violent criminals off our streets,' he said in a statement, according to WBUR.
Healey announced earlier this year that she intends to seek reelection to a second, four-year term in the Corner Office.
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