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By Amanda Castro and Dan Gooding
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More than 1,500 noncitizens with criminal records have been arrested in the sanctuary state of Massachusetts as part of one of the largest ICE operations of the Trump administration targeting individuals with serious charges, officials said Monday.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the effort, dubbed Operation Patriot, focused on arresting undocumented immigrants with convictions or outstanding warrants for crimes including homicide, drug trafficking, sexual assault, and other violent offenses.
Why It Matters
As a sanctuary state, Massachusetts has been a key focus for federal immigration enforcement, which has struggled at times to locate and detain illegal immigrants with criminal charges and convictions, due to laws that prevent local law enforcement from working with them.
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What To Know
Lyons said federal agents worked across multiple Massachusetts communities, including Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Worcester, Springfield, Lawrence, and Boston.
The operation started in early May, running through June 2, with many of those detained alleged drug traffickers and foreign fugitives, Lyons said, who were trying to evade justice in their home countries.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agencies, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals Service, collaborated with ICE as part of the operation, in a manner similar to other mass enforcement efforts seen in recent months.
U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley spoke at Monday's briefing, saying her office had charged over 50 foreign nationals who had reentered the U.S. illegally, often multiple times. ICE said that some of those detained were alleged members of criminal gangs, including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua.
The acting ICE director repeated the view of the Trump administration that sanctuary policies in Massachusetts, which its leaders have defended, prevent them from detaining individuals the moment they are released by local law enforcement, therefore standing in the way of deportations.
Last week, DHS said it was putting around 500 sanctuary cities, counties, and states "on notice" for not cooperating with it on immigration enforcement, despite many leaders stating their policies do allow police and sheriff departments to work with ICE when it comes to serious and violent offenders.
What People Are Saying
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, during the press briefing Monday: "It's long past time to remove these dangerous criminals from our communities. What we need to do is prevent them from terrorizing family, friends, and our neighbors.
"The bottom line is that ICE and its federal partners without the partnership you see up here, but more importantly if sanctuary cities would change their policies and turn these violent criminal aliens over to us, into our custody, instead of releasing them into the public, we would not have to go out into the community to do this."
U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley, during the press briefing Monday: "When someone who is here illegally chooses to engage in crime, when they bring fentanyl into our neighborhoods, sell firearms to gangs, or assume false identities to collect benefits intended for vulnerable Americans, these are not immigrants, these are criminals."
What Happens Next
Lyons said ICE would continue working in Massachusetts to detain illegal immigrants, whether local law enforcement worked with agents or not.
Update 6/2/25, 1:08 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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