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On Friday, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey sent a sharply worded letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security requesting months of information about illegal immigrants arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during enforcement operations in the state.
According to Healey’s office, the governor wrote to outgoing DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons demanding that the agency deliver, within one week, full and accurate details on every person arrested in Massachusetts since January 2025. The request includes each individual’s identity, the legal grounds for the arrest, case status, detention location, court jurisdiction, and any scheduled hearing dates.
“Many of those taken into custody are long-standing members of our communities—parents, caregivers, and workers whose sudden detention leaves their families in crisis,” Healey wrote. “This has had far-reaching consequences for their children, families, our communities, and the state of Massachusetts.”
Healey also argued that ICE’s own data suggests that most of the individuals arrested in Massachusetts do not have a criminal record.
Officials from DHS and the U.S. Attorney’s Office responded with a joint statement, emphasizing what they described as the irony of the governor’s request for information.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said:
“Isn’t it rich that the very governor who refuses to share information with federal law enforcement is now demanding information on ICE arrests? She forgets that being in the country illegally is, in fact, illegal.
The truth is 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.
Why does Governor Healey wish to impede ICE from removing criminal ilegal aliens from the Bay State?”
The statement added that the operations in Massachusetts have so far resulted in “more than 2,860 arrests of criminal illegal aliens, many of whom were let in under President Joe Biden,” and concluded by urging the governor to take a different approach.
“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 our New England communities safe from criminal alien offenders,” the officials said.
Supporters of the administration argue that similar disputes between federal immigration authorities and Democratic-led states are becoming more common, particularly as immigration enforcement remains a central issue ahead of upcoming midterm elections.
