Gov. Maura Healey is defending a letter she sent to DHS officials demanding information on people arrested or detained by ICE in Massachusetts, going on to claim that a “vast majority” of those picked up by the agency have no criminal history.
“As a former public safety official, understanding and having an accounting from ICE about who they’ve taken from Massachusetts, I think, is important. They’ve taken kids, they’ve taken moms, they’ve taken dads. There are public safety issues associated with just taking people from our communities. I want an accounting [of ICE arrests],” Healey said Tuesday at an event in Saugus after the Herald asked her what she seeks to accomplish with her continued antagonization of ICE and DHS leadership.
The governor pointed to “public safety” and “public welfare” as a motive for the letter.
Healey sent the Friday letter to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and former DHS Sec. Kristi Noem, who, until President Trump fired her on Thursday ran the Department of Homeland Security, demanding they provide “complete and accurate information on every person arrested in Massachusetts since January 2025, including the identity of each individual, the legal basis for each arrest, case status, detention location, court jurisdiction, and upcoming hearing dates,” all within one week.
“You have repeatedly claimed that ICE is targeting the ‘worst of the worst.’ But even by ICE’s own account, the facts tell a very different story. Many of those taken into custody are longstanding members of our communities — parents, caregivers, and workers whose sudden detention leaves their families in crisis,” Healey wrote in the letter. “This has had far-reaching consequences for their children, families, our communities, and the state of Massachusetts.”
The Herald also asked the governor if she expects ICE to respond to her demands. Healey did not answer, instead continuing to push her claims that the majority of people the federal immigration agency is arresting and detaining have “absolutely no criminal charges against them or criminal convictions.”
“I also think it’s important for us to understand exactly who they have taken, because for a long time they’ve talked about taking the ‘worst of the worst,’ and we know from ICE’s own data that the vast majority of people that they’re picking up have absolutely no criminal charges against them or criminal convictions. So that’s what this is about, Healey said.
“As a matter of public safety and as a matter of public welfare, I want to understand who’s been taken from Massachusetts because we’ve got little kids left without parents, we’ve got some young people who’ve been taken, and we’ve got a lot of people who have been taken who are working in Massachusetts and I want to know their whereabouts,” she said.
Healey says that 46% of the 1,461 people arrested or detained by ICE in Operation Patriot in May 2025 “had no criminal background whatsoever.” The governor then averred that for Operation 2.0, conducted in September 2025, 60% of the 1,406 people arrested by ICE in that operation also “had no criminal background whatsoever.”
Lyons and Foley swung back at Healey, posting a joint statement to X, pointing out that she failed to acknowledge that it is in fact a federal crime to be in the United States illegally.
“The truth is that every single alien arrested during Operations Patriot and Patriot 2.0 was in violation of U.S. immigration law. The majority of those had committed serious crimes in the United States or in their native countries. Most were released due to local and state jurisdictions refusing to cooperate with ICE,” Lyons and Foley said in their response.
“Why does Governor Healey wish to impede ICE from removing criminal illegal aliens from the Bay State? In Massachusetts, Operations Patriot and Patriot 2.0 resulted in more than 2,860 arrests of criminal illegal aliens many of whom were let into the country under President Biden,” they said.
Lyons and Foley also slammed Healey for what they portray as hypocrisy for demanding federal authorities provide her with information while she continues to refuse to provide information on Massachusetts SNAP recipients, including immigration status, to the Trump administration and the USDA to root out waste, fraud and abuse.
“Isn’t it rich that the very governor who refuses to share information with federal law enforcement is now demanding information on ICE arrests? Governor Healey should stop using her pulpit to smear ICE and bully private companies. Instead, she should start working with the Trump administration to put American citizens first and keep New England communities safe from criminal alien offenders,” they said.
Healey sent another letter Friday to Signature Aviation CEO Tony Lefebvre, urged the Florida-based company to “immediately sever ties with ICE and stop providing services that support deportation flights” out of Hanscom Air Field, including coordinating with charter operators, fueling aircraft, and facilitating access to the airfield and tarmac.
This all as the state Legislature advances a bill backed by Healey, the Protect Act (H. 5158), which would ban ICE agents from making civil arrests in state courthouses and other areas and would prohibit sheriff’s offices from entering into any new 287(g) agreements in Massachusetts.
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