As ICE officials publicize surge in May arrests in Mass., Democrats call for more oversight

Boston Globe

3 days ago

ICE officials said 790 of those detained had criminal convictions or pending charges, but provided no details on what those charges were. Officials also did not immediately provide information on how many of those arrested had a record of violent crimes, or how many had previous convictions. The total figure included international criminal charges and people charged for illegally reentering the country, officials said.
Lyons and US District Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said the recent enforcement sweep, dubbed 'Operation Patriot,' had improved public safety in Massachusetts by removing dangerous criminals from the streets.
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Lyons spoke next to blown up photographs of 14 men who he said ICE had committed serious offenses, including murder, drug trafficking and sexual assault. Neither he, Foley or other immigration officials provided the men's names, making it impossible to verify their records.
Meanwhile, across town at a simultaneous immigration-focused roundtable, US Representative Ayanna Pressley and others highlighted immigrants whose family members have been arrested and detained by ICE without having been formally charged with a crime, and called for the release of their loved ones.
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'ICE raids have robbed us and our family members in our collective sense of security and belonging,' she said. 'This is a systemic, coordinated, unrelenting attack that is being felt throughout [Massachusetts].'
Patricia Hyde, field director of ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations in Boston, defended the arrests of immigrants with no significant criminal history.
'Every person we arrested was breaking our immigration laws,' Hyde said.
Foley echoed the sentiment: 'These are not immigrants. They are criminals, and they will be treated as such."
On Beacon Hill, Governor Maura Healey spoke at an unrelated event about another high-profile ICE arrest: the detention of a
Healey said there 'there's no reason to believe' that Marcelo Gomes Da Silva had any criminal background or record, and decried that lack of details the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released. She said that absent new information, federal immigration authorities should release him.
'Unless ICE has additional information about this young person, he should be released,' she told reporters.
Hyde said Gomes was not ICE's initial target. Instead, they were looking for his father, and Gomes was driving his father's car when agents pulled him over. Friends and family of Gomes told the Globe Sunday he was a dedicated student athlete with no criminal record.
'I didn't say he was dangerous,' Hyde said. 'I said he was here illegally.'
When agents didn't find their man, they detained Gomes in a 'collateral arrest,' where agents arrest undocumented immigrants they encounter even if they are not an intended target. The practice was previously banned by the Biden administration, but reinstated under Trump.
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'When we go into the community and find others who are unlawfully here, we are going to arrest them,' Hyde said.
Healey said in a statement on Sunday that she was 'disturbed and outraged' by the teen's detainment. The first-term Democrat, who served for eights years as the state's attorney general, said she supports ICE arresting those with criminal backgrounds, but said they've 'made mistakes' before.
'By their own admission, they have also arrested several hundreds of individuals in Massachusetts and taken them away who do not have criminal records,' she said. 'Everybody should be following the law here, following the rules here. ICE should be producing information about who has been arrested, what they've been charged with, what their circumstance was, and they should make that available to the public.
'We need transparency, we need information,' she later added. 'We need ICE to follow the law.
Samantha J. Gross can be reached at