Boston’s radical Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu is refusing to address reports that crimes committed by illegal migrants are soaring in her so-called “sanctuary city.”
Wu’s silence on the matter is leading her concerned constituents to assume that the city has no plans to rethink its status as a “sanctuary” jurisdiction.
Reports of crimes committed by migrants and a lack of cooperation with federal authorities have sparked worries among residents.
The issue has also led to frustration within local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.
According to a report last week from Fox News reporter Bill Melugin, ICE officers in Boston have been working hard to remove dangerous criminals.
However, ICE agents have had their efforts stymied by local laws that protect illegal aliens.
The most recent example saw an elite group of Boston-based ICE officers make five arrests.
The arrests included four alleged child rapists and a member of the deadly Mexican street gang MS-13.
ICE says this group of dangerous criminals was allowed to freely roam the streets because of local sanctuary policies that denied the agency’s detainer requests.
Meanwhile, ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons praised the work of local officers to remove the potential threats to the community from the streets.
However, he admits that the sanctuary policies in Boston are “frustrating.”
The policies make it more difficult for the agency to do its job and easy for the migrant criminals to escape justice, he warned,
“That’s every day up here in Boston,” Lyons told Melugin.
“Those are the public safety threats we really want to get off the street.
“It was a great day, great day for the team.
“Five public safety threats that can’t victimize anyone anymore.”
That frustration comes amid increased reports in recent months of violent crimes committed by migrants in Massachusetts.
In one case last month, a Haitian migrant allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl at a hotel in Rockland, a town located just over 20 miles south of downtown Boston.
The migrant, Cory Alvarez, was ordered held without bail, according to an NBC 10 report last month.
However, ICE officials still face obstacles when it comes to federal deportation proceedings.
That issue was highlighted in January when another Haitian migrant who was charged with raping a developmentally disabled person was released back into the Boston community.
The release came despite pleas from ICE to transfer the dangerous suspect into their custody.
“Disturbingly and despite our filing an immigration detainer, this individual was released back into the community by the criminal court,” ICE said in a statement at the time.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has also come under fire amid the reported crimes and the state’s taxpayer-funded program to shelter illegal aliens.
“It’s a horrible situation, a horrible allegation, and my thoughts are with the victim,” Healey said of the Rockland incident in an interview last month with CBS Boston.
Nevertheless, the governor also distanced herself from responsibility for the incident.
Healey argues that the state does have security systems in place that are not foolproof.
Additionally, the governor tried to shovel blame onto congressional Republicans for not supporting Democrat President Joe Biden’s “bipartisan immigration” bill – a Trojan Horse for funding the endless war in Ukraine.
“Donald Trump said no deal, no deal before the election, and they all pulled back, the Republicans pulled back,” Healey said of the failed “border” bill.
“That’s playing politics and we and other states continue to pay the price.”
Officially, Massachusetts does not have a statewide sanctuary policy on the books.
However, the Center for Immigration Studies classifies the state as a sanctuary jurisdiction as a result of a 2017 state supreme court ruling that concluded that state law “provides no authority for Massachusetts court officers to arrest and hold an individual solely on the basis of a Federal civil immigration detainer, beyond the time that the individual would otherwise be entitled to be released from State custody.”
Like Healey, Mayor Wu has also pinned the blame on federal laws and Republicans.
In February, Wu claimed that the crisis reaching her city is a symptom “of a federal immigration system that’s been broken.”
“At the federal level, there have been over a decade of conversations about how to fix, but as those conversations are ongoing about how to ensure there are legal pathways to citizenship and then to have enforcement and security at the border around legal pathways, and then to have resources directed down to municipalities, it’s a lot before anything might be ever felt at the local level,” Wu said at the time, according to a report from NBC 10.
Those comments came after Wu visited Washington, D.C., in January for talks with Homeland Security Secretary (HHS) Alejandro Mayorkas.
During the meeting, the Boston mayor called for more federal funding for cities impacted by the influx of illegal border crossers.
But without changes to state or local laws, Lyons told Melugin there is only so much his officers in Boston can do with their current staffing levels.
“I don’t have enough officers or resources to tackle all these public safety threats,” Lyons said.
“Are we gonna go after the child rapist today, or are we gonna go after the twice-deported fentanyl dealer?
“Because we can’t do both.”
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