Massachusetts US Attorney Leah B. Foley blasted Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Wednesday for her recent criticism of ICE agents, stressing that federal officers “will not apologize” for their efforts to enforce immigration law.
Undeterred, Wu fired right back.
Foley, in a video message posted to X, said Wu, in a recent interview, made “reckless and inflammatory statements regarding enforcement efforts made by federal immigration authorities” in Massachusetts.
Calling “federal agents ‘secret police’ is offensive. There are no secret police. ICE agents, along with other federal law enforcement partners, are making immigration arrests. That is no secret,” she said.
Wu defended her previous comments when asked about Foley’s criticism.
She emphasized that Boston police do their work every day “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,” Wu told reporters after an unrelated event at City Hall Wednesday.
“I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks,” she continued. “We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks, [New England-based neo-Nazi group] NSC 131, routinely wears masks.”
Wu recently told WBUR that people are “terrified” for their relatives and neighbors amid the ICE crackdown.
“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,” Wu said during Friday’s WBUR Festival.
“The US attorney is attacking me for saying what Bostonians see with their own eyes,” said Wu on Wednesday. “We have seen it directly in our communities, and it is undermining our efforts at the local level to keep people safe, because it is spreading fear that undermines the trust with local police. We do things very differently in Boston, and we are proud of how we do things.”
Foley said agents are arresting people who are in the country without authorization and that each arrest is conducted “within the bounds” of the Constitution and the law.
“To claim otherwise is a gross misrepresentation and a disservice to the public,” Foley said. “Federal agents in marked jackets and vests are masking their faces because people like Mayor Wu have created false narratives about their mission.”
Foley said federal agents are wearing masks because they and their children are being threatened and doxxed.
“That is why they must hide their faces,” Foley said.
She said suggesting that federal agents are arbitrarily “snatching” people off the street is false.
“On the contrary, every arrest and detention is pursuant to and sanctioned by federal law,” Foley said, adding that “we will not apologize for doing our job.”
Wu remained firm in her commitment to speaking out against the federal government’s immigration enforcement efforts when asked by a reporter Wednesday whether being outspoken is worth risking the ire of the Trump administration.
“It is still important to tell the truth,” Wu said. “It is important to be clear about what our values are, about what the law is, and about how we do things in a city where we have shown tremendous progress and results.”
An uptick in immigration sweeps in recent weeks has alarmed local authorities and communities. Last week, immigration agents arrested an estimated 40 people on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. On Friday, Plymouth town leaders criticized federal immigration officials for failing to inform them before masked and armed agents conducted an early morning raid in North Plymouth. An 18-year-old Milford High School student was also recently apprehended.
Last month, Foley condemned what she described as “interference” with recent federal immigration operations in the state and said her office “will investigate any violations of federal law and pursue charges that are warranted by such activity.”
“This conduct poses significant public and officer safety risks,” Foley said in a statement. “It is conduct that should be vilified rather than glorified.”
In March, Wu testified before a congressional hearing on immigration enforcement and criticized the Trump administration’s aggressive push to deport undocumented immigrants.
“This federal administration is making hard-working, tax-paying, God-fearing people afraid to live their lives,” Wu said. “A city that’s scared is not a city that’s safe. A land ruled by fear is not the land of the free.”
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report and this posting will be updated.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Niki Griswold can be reached at niki.griswold@globe.com. Follow her @nikigriswold.