Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Todd Lyons is criticizing the Boston Police Department for ignoring immigration detainer requests after ICE arrested large numbers of illegal aliens in Massachusetts.
Lyons said police ignored nearly 170 of those requests in 2025, not 57 as the city’s police commissioner said, the Boston Herald reported Tuesday.
He told the Herald in a statement:
ICE lodged 167 immigration detainers against criminal illegal aliens in Boston police custody during 2025 — far more than the Boston Police Department is admitting to. Ironically, Commissioner Michael Cox says the police won’t honor our detainers because they’re committed to building and strengthening relationships and trust with the community.
But how does releasing criminal illegal aliens back into the communities they victimized build trust? It doesn’t. It shows Bostonians that local police leaders are so politically motivated that they would rather release criminals than work with ICE, which completely undermines public safety.
The list of those Lyons said police refused to hand over to the agency included 36-year-old Marlon Joel Rodriguez of Angola.
The Herald article said he “has pending charges for assault and battery on a family or household member and strangulation. He also has previous arrests for assault and battery on a family or household member, operating under the influence, and assault and battery.”
In a social media post on Sunday, ICE Boston highlighted outcomes of the agency’s work.
“In a historic year of record-breaking achievements under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Noem, DHS law enforcement arrested more than 700,000 illegal aliens—nearly 70% of ICE arrests have been charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” the post reads:
In August, Lyons claimed Boston police officers were defying leftist Mayor Michelle Wu by secretly giving immigration officials information to help arrest criminal illegal aliens.
“They can’t cooperate openly out of fear of getting in trouble or getting fired. But they’re helping us anyway,” Lyons said. “That’s the issue we’re seeing in so many jurisdictions. We have so many men and women on the Boston Police Department and other jurisdictions that are so pro-ICE, that want to work with us and that are actually helping us behind the scenes.”
Federal immigration officers and police partners arrested over 1,400 illegal alien offenders during an operation targeting violent criminals, gang members, and foreign fugitives in Massachusetts, Breitbart News reported in October.
More recently, Wu went viral for saying every human on earth has the “legal right” to come to the United States, the outlet said.
In contrast, ICE made it clear on February 18th the reason why the agency is dedicated to its mission.
“Thousands of American families have been torn apart because of criminal illegal alien violence. American citizens raped and murdered by those who have no right to be in our country,” its social media post read:
“This is who we fight for. This is our why,” the agency concluded.
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