The Trump administration is planning an immigration enforcement surge in Boston, a crackdown that could come as soon as next month, Politico reported Friday.
The plan is to flood the sanctuary city with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents either after a similar operation in Chicago or at the same time, according to the report. Both cities' mayors and their respective governors have refused to cooperate with federal immigration agencies to remove illegal migrants, particularly those with criminal records.
But with funding opened up with the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE has more resources to beef up enforcement efforts.
"All these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE where we know public safety threats are being released every day into this country, especially those cities, we're going to address that," border czar Tom Homan said at the White House this week. "So we're going to take the assets we have and move them to problem areas like sanctuary cities where we know for a fact there are public safety threats, illegal aliens on the streets every day."
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu earlier this month rebuffed a warning from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to comply with federal law on immigration enforcement.
"We are the safest major city in the country because we are safe for everyone. Boston does not back down to bullies," Wu said. "Boston does not back down in the face of threats and certainly when the threats and the tactics seem to cross the line and seem to be against the law."
In the letter to 32 sanctuary jurisdictions, Bondi said officials standing behind sanctuary policies that impede illegal immigration efforts "may be subject to criminal charges."
"Any sanctuary jurisdiction that continues to put illegal aliens ahead of American citizens can either come to the table or see us in court," Bondi said in a post to X on Aug. 14.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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