ICE Launches Enforcement Surge In Massachusetts Called ‘Patriot 2.0’

Federal immigration officials have launched a new surge of enforcement in Massachusetts, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Sunday.

The department did not say how long the increased ICE activity would last. In May, ICE reported nearly 1,500 arrests in “Operation Patriot,” a month-long crackdown, WBUR reported.

The latest surge is being called “Patriot 2.0.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, nowhere is a safe haven for criminal illegal aliens,” a DHS spokesperson said. “If you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will hunt you down, arrest you, deport you, and you will never return.”

Jillian Phillips, a volunteer with LUCE, a group that runs a hotline to report ICE sightings, said the state is “100%” in the middle of a new surge.

“From the Boston area out to western Mass., we are seeing a lot of early morning activity and we are seeing a lot of larger groups of agents,” she said. “So we just encourage folks to continue to stay aware, to stay vigilant, to know their rights.”

The DHS statement said the enforcement would cover all of Massachusetts but singled out Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, citing “sanctuary policies.”

Wu defended Boston’s Trust Act, which prohibits Boston police from working with ICE on civil immigration detainers. She noted police do cooperate with federal authorities on criminal cases. Wu warned that Boston is prepared to take legal action if ICE violates constitutional protections.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued the city last week, arguing the Trust Act violates federal law.

Rep. Seth Moulton said Trump is targeting Democratic communities.

“He’s turning to places like Boston that respect our immigrants, that value them, that know they contribute so much to our communities, to our families, to our schools, to our businesses, to our economy,” Moulton told WBUR.

He added that Democrats must take crime seriously and continue directing resources to policing.

“But he said the latest ramp-up in ICE action isn’t about public safety — it’s about asserting Trump’s power.”

Gov. Maura Healey called the surge “more of the same” from the Trump administration.

“While they’ve said they’re after violent criminals, what we’ve seen far too often, in such great numbers here and across the country, are construction workers and nannies and health care aides and agriculture workers, who are being taken out of our communities, taken away from their families,” Healey said.

She repeated that Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state.

“What we have seen from ICE and from the administration really isn’t about public safety,” Healey said in an MSNBC interview.

“It’s about political theater. It’s about a political power grab and an attempt to intimidate.”

She said the enforcement is “about show” and compared it to deploying the National Guard in U.S. cities.

Healey, who faces reelection next year, also accused Trump of using immigration enforcement to distract from what she called his “abysmal” record on the economy.

Pressed to explain her insistence that Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state, she said it is “just the fact.”

“These are just terms that the Trump administration makes up — guys, that’s what’s going on — to fit into their narrative and to further this political theater,” Healey said.

While critical of ICE’s tactics, Healey has also said she supports stronger border control.

“I told President Biden that he needed to act on the border and shut it down two years ago, three years ago now,” she told reporters in May. “I think that some of what Donald Trump has done on the border makes a lot of sense, right? And the tightening there. I won’t get into specifics. But the general move and recognition that there needed to be more control brought to the border is absolutely correct. And certain things have been done that make a lot of sense.”