Latest news with #NSC131
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
ICE chief's brutal takedown after Democratic mayor compares his agents to neo-Nazis
The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement attacked high-profile Democrats for 'putting my people in danger' after they criticized how agents do their jobs - with one liberal mayor comparing ICE officers to a neo-Nazi group. Todd M. Lyons took specific aim at Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries in a recorded statement. Wu had previously commented about how ICE agents and the white supremacist group Nationalist Social Club-131 both wear masks. 'I don't know of any police department that routinely wears masks. We know that there are other groups who routinely wear masks. NSC-131 routinely wears masks,' the progressive mayor told reporters this week. The Nationalist Social Club-131, better known as NSC-131, is a neo-Nazi group based in the New England area that claims to have chapters in France, Hungary and Germany, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Last week, Wu described ICE agents as a 'secret police' force that has 'snatched' illegal immigrants off the streets of Boston. Lyons said the rhetoric of Wu and other Democrats is dangerous to ICE agents in the field, some of whom have been doxxed by communities facing immigration raids. 'Politicians need to stop putting my people in danger. I'm not asking them to stop. I'm demanding that they stop,' he said in his video message. 'Here's what I have to say to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, and anyone else stirring up outrage about ICE does,' Lyons said. 'These are real people with real families that you're hurting with your ridiculous rhetoric and inflammatory comments.' Jeffries, the House Minority Leader, said Tuesday during a press conference that ICE agents concealing their identities with masks is a futile exercise. 'Every single ICE agent who is engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that,' he said. 'This is America. This is not the Soviet Union. We're not behind the Iron Curtain. This is not the 1930s. And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, will of course be identified. That, in fact, is the law,' Jeffries added. Federal regulations stipulate that any US official making an immigration-related arrest must identify themselves as an immigration enforcement officer. There is nothing in federal code requiring them to share their name with suspects, nor are there any rules about face coverings. A May 23 joint letter penned by Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine accused the Trump administration of allowing ICE agents to wear masks when arresting 'nonviolent individuals without a prior criminal history.' In the letter addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Border Czar Tom Homan and Lyons, the Democratic senators said the practice of ICE agents covering their faces used to be 'reserved for undercover or sensitive operations.' 'We remain deeply concerned that ICE's lack of transparency will lead the public to intercede in enforcement efforts, escalating an already tense interaction, and risking an entirely avoidable violent situation,' the letter read. 'Increased use of face coverings and lack of prompt and clear identification by ICE officers and agents in public is also having unintended consequences. Criminals are taking advantage of ICE's anonymity and impersonating law enforcement officers and ICE agents,' the senators claimed. A May 23 joint letter penned by Democratic Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine accused the Trump administration of allowing ICE agents to wear masks when arresting 'nonviolent individuals without a prior criminal history' Lyons, who has been leading ICE on an acting basis since March 9, has an explanation for why his agents have been covering their faces since Trump took office. At a Monday press conference in Boston, he talked at length about how people leaked the personal information of ICE agents conducting a raid in Los Angeles, leading to death threats against them. 'People are out there taking photos of the names, their faces and posting them online with death threats to their families and themselves,' he said. He described a joint operation between ICE and the Secret Service where they arrested a person who was 'going online, taking [ICE agents'] photos, posting their families, their kid's Instagram, their kids' Facebooks and targeting them.' 'So let me ask, is that the issue here, that we're just upset about the masks? Or is anyone upset with the fact that ICE officers' families were labeled terrorists,' he said while holding back tears. Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a bill Wednesday that would make it a crime to dox federal law enforcement officials. The bill would impose a maximum criminal penalty of five years in prison for anyone convicted.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mayor Wu's claims about ICE agents ‘outrageous': Massachusetts DA
(NewsNation) — ICE agents have been faced with heightened scrutiny in major cities across the U.S. as the agency ramps up immigration arrests. ICE agents often wear masks during their operations, and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, recently said she did not know of any other police agency that wears masks like the immigration agents do. She also noted that controversial groups, including the neo-Nazi organization NSC-131, do wear them. In a post on social platform X, the Department of Homeland Security called Wu's remarks 'sickening,' and that they wear the masks to protect themselves from being targeted. Kilmar Abrego Garcia returns to US to face charges Leah Foley, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, also said the agents are protecting themselves, and that she will continue to defend them against Wu's claims, as they are just doing their jobs. 'She called them secret agents, and compared them to neo-Nazis,' Foley said. 'That is false, it's outrageous and it's offensive.' Foley added that agents have been videotaped and had their photos taken on the job, and that it is putting them and their families in jeopardy. She said doxxing of federal agents will not be tolerated. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Int'l Business Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Boston Mayor Compares ICE to Neo-Nazi Group: 'There Are Other Groups That Routinely Wear Masks'
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu compared immigration agents to members of NSC 131, a New England-based neo-Nazi group. "I don't know of any police department that routinely wears masks," Wu said Wednesday. "We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks, NSC 131 routinely wears masks," she added, referencing Nationalist Social Club-131, a neo-Nazi organization founded in Massachusetts in 2019. Wu, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and his administration, made her comments in response to criticism from Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts. Foley, a Trump appointee confirmed in January, accused the Boston mayor of spreading "false narratives" about federal agents. The dispute stemmed from Wu's remarks, made last week, about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, which she said had "terrified" her constituents. Wu previously told WBUR people were being "snatched off the street by secret police who are wearing masks, who can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained." Foley labeled Wu's comments "reckless and inflammatory," and defended ICE agents' masks, asserting they and their families were being "threatened, doxxed, and assaulted" in social media posts. When asked to respond to Foley's comments, Wu pointed out that Boston police work "without wearing masks, displaying their badges publicly, with body cameras that document the interactions that take place with full transparency, because we have nothing to hide," according to the Boston Globe, before comparing ICE agents to the neo-Nazi group members. "We see what's happening with our own eyes. A land ruled by fear is not the land of the free," Wu wrote in a Bluesky post Thursday, accompanied by the Boston Globe article referencing Foley's comments. Federal officials held a press conference earlier this week to tout their monthlong operation that resulted in the arrests of nearly 1,500 undocumented Americans, according to marking one of the largest ICE operations ever. Originally published on Latin Times
Fox News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Homeland Security says Boston's mayor comparing ICE agents to neo-Nazis is 'sickening'
The Department of Homeland Security says Boston's Democrat mayor comparing ICE agents to neo-Nazis is "sickening." The reaction Thursday came in response to a video posted by an account affiliated with the White House, during which Michelle Wu said, "I don't know of any police department that routinely wears masks. "We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks. NSC-131 routinely wears masks," Wu added, in reference to a New England-based neo-Nazi group. "Mayor Wu comparing ICE agents to neo-Nazis is SICKENING," Homeland Security wrote on X. "When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected gang members, murders, and rapists." "Attacks and demonization of our brave law enforcement is WRONG. ICE officers are now facing a 413% increase in assaults," Homeland Security added. The Anti-Defamation League said members of NSC-131 "consider themselves soldiers at war with a hostile, Jewish-controlled system that is deliberately plotting the extinction of the White race." Wu also recently said in an interview with WBUR that "People are terrified for their lives and for their neighbors" and "folks [are] getting snatched off the street by secret police who are wearing masks, who can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained." ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, in a message to Wu on Wednesday, said "these are real people with real families you're hurting with your ridiculous rhetoric and inflammatory comments and it's time to remember that." Leah Foley, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, also released a video message saying "federal agents in marked jackets and vests are masking their faces because people like Mayor Wu have created false narratives about their mission. "Federal agents and their children are being threatened, doxxed and assaulted. That is why they must hide their faces," she added.
