ICE chief defends agents' use of masks, decries sanctuary jurisdictions
Boston, Jun 2 (AP) Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons on Monday defended the use of masks by his agents and expressed frustration at sanctuary jurisdictions that he said are hindering the detainment of immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Lyons said his agents wear masks because they and their families have been doxxed and 'targeted" with death threats.
'I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is," he said.
Lyons made the comments during a press conference at the Boston federal courthouse to announce the completion of a May operation in which nearly 1,500 immigrants were taken into custody across Massachusetts. He was leaving the room when a reporter asked him about the masks. He turned around and returned to the podium to answer it.
'Is that the issue here that we're just upset about the masks?" he asked the room of journalists. 'Or is anyone upset about the fact that ICE officers' families were labelLed terrorists?" As part of last month's operation, authorities in Massachusetts detained 1,461 immigrants living in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, Lowell, Lawrence, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and other communities. ICE said 790 of those immigrants had criminal histories, including the crime of reentering the US after deportation, and that 277 had previously been ordered to be removed from the country by a federal immigration judge.
Lyons, who is from Boston, said these operations wouldn't be necessary if 'sanctuary cities would change their policy." There's no legal definition for sanctuary city policies, but they generally limit cooperation by local law enforcement with federal immigration officers. Courts have repeatedly upheld the legality of sanctuary laws.
As of Monday, there was a 'Page Not Found" error message in its place.
During a March congressional hearing, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other Democratic mayors defended sanctuary city policies. Brandon Johnson of Chicago said 'mischaracterisations and fearmongering" were obscuring the fact that crime in Chicago is trending down.
'This federal administration is making hard-working, taxpaying, God-fearing residents afraid to live their lives," Wu said.
During Monday's press conference, a poster board with mug shots of unnamed immigrants was displayed. A full list of those arrested was not made available, nor was information about the crimes specific individuals are accused of committing.
Lyons called them 'dangerous criminals" who are 'terrorising family, friends and our neighbours." White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the key driver of immigration policy in the Trump administration, has said that the administration is setting a goal of 3,000 arrests by ICE each day and that the number could go higher.
Lyons said during an interview with Fox & Friends on Sunday that the agency was averaging about 1,600 arrests per day. He said they can and will do more. That marks an increase from previous ICE arrest data that showed that the agency arrested 78,155 people between January 20 and May 19 — an average of 656 arrests per day.
Lyons heads an agency at the centre of Trump's mass deportations agenda. Just last week, the agency underwent its second major reorganisation since Trump took office, as the head of the Enforcement and Removal Operations section of ICE retired and the head of ICE's Homeland Security Investigations section transitioned to another role. (AP) AMJ AMJ
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June 03, 2025, 01:45 IST
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How Ukraine drone strikes deep inside Russia serves as a lesson for other countries
Ukraine's Operation Spider Web — a coordinated series of drone strikes — lays bare the gaps in airspace which can be used by any party with enough planning and the right technology. What Ukraine did was to combine the cheap drones in a way that existing systems could not prevent the attack, or maybe even see it coming read more Plumes of smoke are seen rising over the Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia after a Ukrainian drone attack in the Irkutsk region, more than 4,000 kilometres from Ukraine. AP Ukrainians are celebrating the success of one of the most audacious coups of the war against Russia – a coordinated drone strike on June 1 on five airbases deep inside Russian territory. Known as Operation Spider Web, it was the result of 18 months of planning and involved the smuggling of drones into Russia, synchronised launch timings and improvised control centres hidden inside freight vehicles. Ukrainian sources claim more than 40 Russian aircraft were damaged or destroyed. Commercial satellite imagery confirms significant fire damage, cratered runways, and blast patterns across multiple sites, although the full extent of losses remains disputed. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The targets were strategic bomber aircraft and surveillance planes, including Tu-95s and A-50 airborne early warning systems. The drones were launched from inside Russia and navigated at treetop level using line-of-sight piloting and GPS pre-programming. Each was controlled from a mobile ground station parked within striking distance of the target. It is reported that a total of 117 drones were deployed across five locations. While many were likely intercepted, or fell short, enough reached their targets to signal a dramatic breach in Russia's rear-area defence. The drone platforms themselves were familiar. These were adapted first-person-view (FPV) multirotor drones. These are ones where the operator gets a first-person perspective from the drone's onboard camera. These are already used in huge numbers along the front lines in Ukraine by both sides. But Operation Spider Web extended their impact through logistical infiltration and timing. Operation Spider Web exposes vulnerabilities Nations treat their airspace as sovereign, a controlled environment: mapped, regulated and watched over. Air defence systems are built on the assumption that threats come from above and from beyond national borders. Detection and response also reflect that logic. It is focused on mid and high-altitude surveillance and approach paths from beyond national borders. But Operation Spider Web exposed what happens when states are attacked from below and from within. In low-level airspace, visibility drops, responsibility fragments, and detection tools lose their edge. Drones arrive unannounced, response times lag, coordination breaks. Spider Web worked not because of what each drone could do individually, but because of how the operation was designed. It was secret and carefully planned of course, but also mobile, flexible and loosely coordinated. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD A satellite image shows damage to aircraft at an airfield in Irkutsk, following Ukrainian drones attack targeting Russian military airfields, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, in Stepnoy, Irkutsk region, Russia. Reuters The cost of each drone was low but the overall effect was high. This isn't just asymmetric warfare, it's a different kind of offensive capability – and any defence needs to adapt accordingly. On Ukraine's front lines, where drone threats are constant, both sides have adapted by deploying layers of detection tools, short range air defences and jamming systems. In turn, drone operators have turned to alternatives. One option is drones that use spools of shielded fibre optic cable. 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Lessons to be learnt from Operation Spider Web Spider Web is not the first long-range drone operation of this war, nor the first to exploit gaps in Russian defences. What Spider Web confirms is that the gaps in airspace can be used by any party with enough planning and the right technology. They can be exploited not just by states and not just in war. The technology is not rare and the tactics are not complicated. What Ukraine did was to combine them in a way that existing systems could not prevent the attack or maybe even see it coming. This is far from a uniquely Russian vulnerability – it is the defining governance challenge of drones in low level airspace. Civil and military airspace management relies on the idea that flight paths are knowable and can be secured. In our work on UK drone regulation, we have described low level airspace as acting like a common pool resource. This means that airspace is widely accessible. It is also difficult to keep out drones with unpredictable flightpaths. Under this vision of airspace, it can only be meaningfully governed by more agile and distributed decision making. Operation Spider Web confirms that military airspace behaves in a similar way. Centralised systems to govern airspace can struggle to cope with what happens at the scale of the Ukrainian attacks – and the cost of failure can be strategic. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Improving low-level airspace governance will require better technologies, better detection and faster responses. New sensor technologies such as passive radio frequency detectors, thermal imaging, and acoustic (sound-based) arrays can help close current visibility gaps, especially when combined. But detection alone is not enough. Interceptors including capture drones (drones that hunt and disable other drones), nets to ensnare drones, and directed energy weapons such as high powered lasers are being developed and trialled. 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Lewis, Professor of Operations and Supply Management, University of Bath This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Russia Ukraine war: Satellite images reveal massive destruction of warplanes caused by Sunday's drone strikes at air bases. See photos
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Hindustan Times
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