WASHINGTON, D.C. — Massachusetts lawmakers issued multiple calls for transparency surrounding current and future operations by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as federal officials claim some immigration agents will be pulling back from their surge in Minnesota.
Last week began with a letter signed by a number of Democratic lawmakers Feb. 2 calling for the DHS Inspector General Joseph Cuffari to fast-track an investigation into the killings of Minnesota residents and U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti last month by immigration agents.
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have gotten out of control, using needlessly violent force against community members who are exercising their First Amendment rights and pose no threat,” said the letter. “Reporting and bystander videos indicate that immigration agents have placed people in chokeholds during arrests, tackled people to the ground, released tear gas and flash-bang grenades at close range, smashed windows and broken doors, drawn guns, and most alarmingly, shot and killed two U.S. citizens, a mother named Renée Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti this month alone.”
The letter from Feb. 2 was signed by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan and Seth Moulton and other members of the Massachusetts delegation. In it the lawmakers said they are “pleased that the OIG is investigating these matters,” but expressed concern over the 397 day benchmark for the office to complete and audit, and over evidence the office has been failing to even meet that.
“Given the urgency of this situation — with communities facing severe, and sometimes fatal, harm from ICE’s tactics on American streets every day — we request that your office conduct this review expeditiously and share any preliminary findings with Congress and the public on an expedited basis,” said the letter.
On Wednesday, Moulton sent another letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow inquiring about the reassignment of USCIS staff from New England to Minnesota.
“The Trump Administration’s deadly operation in Minnesota represents unprecedented overreach and a surge of federal immigration resources that have brought fear and disruption to everyday Americans,” Moulton said in a statement Wednesday. “The reassignments have raised serious concern about staff safety, mission drift, and the potential impact on an already-strained immigration processing system.”
In that letter, Moulton asked for DHS and USCIS to provide information on the number of officers reassigned, their rights to decline the reassignment, the purpose of the reassignment, what training the officers are receiving for it and what steps USCIS is taking “to ensure its massive backlog of applications does not grow further due to these reassignments.”
Also on Wednesday, Markey issued his own letter to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons to demand clarity on an alleged database ICE is maintaining of “domestic terrorists.”
“U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and senior Trump administration officials have repeatedly suggested that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is building a ‘domestic terrorists’ database comprising information on U.S. citizens protesting ICE’s actions in recent weeks,” said Markey in his letter. “If such a database exists, it would constitute a grave and unacceptable constitutional violation. I urge you to immediately confirm or deny the existence of such a database, and if it exists, immediately shut it down and delete it.”
Markey’s letter went on to say such a database would serve to “chill lawful speech, deter civic participation, and undermine public trust in law enforcement.”
“These are the kinds of tactics the United States rightly condemns in authoritarian governments such as China and Russia; they have no place in a constitutional democracy,” said Markey, demanding answers from Lyons by Feb. 24.
On Thursday, Markey sounded the alarm over possible plans by the Trump administration to have ICE officers stationed at polling locations later this year amid the midterm elections.
“Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown isn’t just racist — it’s a poorly veiled effort to rig the 2026 election,” said Markey. “For months, Trump has been unleashing his ICE thugs onto our streets to terrorize people, suppress dissent, and overwhelm our communities at sensitive locations such as houses of worship, courtrooms, and even schools.”
Markey continued, “It should be no surprise when Trump tries to unlawfully aim his private army of ICE officers against voters at polling places and election sites in 2026. Trump and MAGA Republicans know their failed policies will not win at the ballot box, so they are left trying to steal elections.”
The alarm from Markey stemmed from statements by President Donald Trump during a podcast appearance where he called for congressional Republicans to “take over the voting.” This was days after the FBI raided an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, a state Trump lost in the 2020 election where he continues to falsely claim he won.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over.’ We should take over the voting … in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” said Trump on the podcast, though he never identified which 15 places he had in mind.
Article 1 of the the Constitution grants the power of administering elections to the individual states, with the federal government historically only having the power to act on civil rights issues when it comes to elections.
The demands from the Massachusetts delegation of lawmakers came amid the backdrop of a partial government shutdown centered around a partisan fight over DHS funding. The shutdown ended last week with Trump signing a $1.2 trillion spending bill, which only included two weeks of DHS funding, setting up for intense negotiations between Congressional Democrats and Republicans ahead of a Feb. 13 deadline.
Moulton and Markey are also among a growing field of candidates for Markey’s current Senate seat, with Moulton making a bid for the other chamber of Congress rather than running again for his seat in the Massachusetts 6th Congressional District.
Original article
Comments