Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will take questions regarding sanctuary city policies from Congress on Wednesday.
Since President Donald Trump’s 2024 electoral victory, Wu has doubled down on Boston’s sanctuary city status, saying police and city officials will not assist federal authorities with deportations.
“Boston continues to experience crime, drug activity, and human trafficking stemming from [migrant] facilities,” Jon Fetherston, a former Massachusetts migrant shelter director, told Fox News Digital. “While Mayor Wu enjoys strong backing from her base, largely influenced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren … residents and surrounding communities are frustrated and embarrassed by her leadership.”
Amy Carnevale, chair of the state’s Republican Party, MassGOP, told Fox News Digital that she expects Wu to talk about “how Boston is a safer city than” New York City, Denver and Chicago, which will also be under a congressional microscope Wednesday as leaders from all four cities are called to testify.
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Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks during a campaign rally in support of the statewide Massachusetts Democratic ticket, Nov. 2, 2022, in Boston. (AP Photo/Mary Schwalm, File)
“But that’s all relative. I mean, one murder, one rape, one violent crime is one too many,” Carnevale said. “We do have many violent crimes committed in Boston by … illegal aliens. And the fact that she has declared Boston to be a sanctuary city is really an invitation to further criminal aliens coming into the city, jeopardizing the safety of residents.”
Under the Boston Trust Act, enacted in 2014 and amended in 2019, the Boston Police Department may “collaborate with ICE-HSI” on certain crimes, including “human trafficking, child exploitation, drug and weapons trafficking, and cybercrimes.”
The act also states, however, that Boston police will not ask people about immigration status, share information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, make arrests based on ICE warrants or transfer people into ICE custody.
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“I keep saying Boston follows the laws. We are going to keep doing what we do because we are in full compliance with the laws, which say that municipal officials and municipal police departments have authority over enforcing crimes at the local level in keeping everyone in their community safe,” Wu recently told WBUR. “Immigration falls under the federal government and federal officials. It is not the purview of city officials to be involved in doing the job of the federal government, and it’s not the federal government’s job to what should happen at the local level either.”
Meanwhile, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s son, Josh Kraft, who is running to replace Wu in November, said in a Feb. 26 statement that he supports “removing violent criminals from our community, wherever they come from.”
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Kraft further voiced his support for the Trust Act and condemned Trump’s plans to curb illegal immigration and deport criminal migrants.
“It is outrageous to consider ICE officers raiding schools or places of worship to round up undocumented immigrants who are not engaged in criminal activity,” Kraft said, referring to a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directive that rescinds the previous Biden administration’s guidelines preventing ICE and Customs and Border Protection officers from enforcing the law in “sensitive” areas.
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“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including murderers and rapists—who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a DHS spokesperson said in a Jan. 21 statement. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
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ICE Boston arrests a Salvadoran national on Jan. 30, 2025, who was charged with sexually assaulting a Massachusetts resident. (ICE Boston)
MassGOP submitted a records request to Gov. Maura Healey’s office last year “asking for details of criminal reports from migrant shelters,” Carnevale said.
“We received those results back just before Christmas, detailing over 1,000 violent criminal incidents … that have happened over the last three years in migrant shelters, which are supposed to be safe havens for individuals seeking shelter in Massachusetts,” the chair explained.
“Those reports were heavily redacted, so we do not know how many violent incidents occurred in the city of Boston, and we would like to have those numbers and know what Mayor Wu … is doing to get a handle on violent criminal incidents.”
Boston police work on Boylston Street on April 13, 2023. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)
Fetherston described migrant shelters as “chaos.”
“Sex crimes, rapes of young girls, EBT card fraud, mold, bugs, rats and no available housing for migrants to move into,” he explained. “… The migrant shelter crisis has impacted school, police and fire budgets. Teachers are frustrated and don’t feel supported. Public safety officials are burned out, as the majority of departments get called to the shelters daily.”
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Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, a Haitian national and alleged gang member with 17 criminal convictions in Massachusetts in a two-year span, is pictured after ICE agents from Boston arrested him. (ICE ERO Boston)
Fetherston also noted that he worked at a Marlborough shelter where a man was accused of impregnating his own 13-year-old daughter last year. The Maine Wire first broke the story about the Haitian migrant, Ronald Joseph, 42, impregnating the girl. Joseph allegedly repeatedly raped his daughter while staying at a government-funded migrant shelter at a Holiday Inn in Marlborough.
Eight months after the Maine Wire released various incident reports detailing Joseph’s alleged crimes, authorities arrested the suspect.
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And while the issue of migrant crime weighs heavily on the hearts and minds of some Boston and Massachusetts residents, it weighs heavily on taxpayer pockets as well.
(Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe via Getty Images)
MassGOP last year revealed its findings that the Massachusetts government had spent more than $1 billion in secrecy” on migrant housing, “leaving Massachusetts residents in the dark,” Carnevale said in a statement at the time. “They have withheld critical information on 600 incidents involving police, fire and EMT. Blocking journalists at every turn, the administration has obstructed the flow of information to the public.”
Wu expected to spend $650,000 on preparations for her trip to Congress this week alone, according to the Boston Herald. Fox News Digital reached out to Wu’s office for comment.
The organizer of an online campaign against Wu called Bostonians Against Mayor Wu, which has more than 32,000 followers on X, told Fox News Digital on the condition of anonymity that “Bostonians are fed up” with their mayor.
Michelle Wu speaks to supporters after winning her race for mayor of Boston on November 2, 2021. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
“As you’d expect, Boston is very woke, and there are still plenty of people who support these policies. But the tide is turning fast,” said the organizer, who spoke anonymously out of fear of retaliation. “The governors of Texas and Florida bussing illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities have opened a lot of eyes. Suddenly, it’s not just an abstract issue. It’s real, it’s expensive, and it’s affecting everyday life.”
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The organizer added that “Boston is not safer” because of sanctuary city policies.
“Day after day, you’ll see Boston ICE reporting arrests of illegal alien child predators who were let onto the streets because of Wu’s sanctuary policies. The city refuses to cooperate with ICE, which means dangerous criminals stay in our communities instead of being deported,” the organizer said.
