US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the results of a major enforcement action in the Democratic stronghold of Massachusetts.
“The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a safer place today thanks to the hard work and determination of the men and women of ICE and our federal partners. Working together, we were able to arrest almost 1,500 illegal aliens throughout the Commonwealth, most of whom had significant criminality in the United States or abroad,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde.
“Make no mistake: Every person that we arrested was breaking our immigration laws, but most of these individuals had significant criminality. They are criminal offenders who victimized innocent people and traumatized entire communities — murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, child sex predators and members of violent transnational criminal gangs. Some were convicted of violent crimes in the United States, and others were wanted for criminality in their native countries,” Hyde stated. “All made the mistake of attempting to subvert justice by hiding out in Massachusetts.
More than half the illegal immigrants arrested during Operation Patriot had “significant” criminal convictions or charges, ICE explained. More than 270 of the offenders arrested in the operation had been ordered removed from the United States by an immigration judge. They chose to ignore the order and remained in the country illegally.
The operation is considered the “largest immigration enforcement operation yet.”
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey (D) recently condemned a separate ICE operation in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard that resulted in 40 arrests.
