Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is facing severe backlash from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the White House for comparing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to neo-Nazis on Wednesday.
Michelle Wu on Wednesday attacked agents, comparing their practice of wearing masks to “other groups that routinely wear masks,” including NSC-131, a New England group classified by the Anti Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center, and other far-left groups as a neo-Nazi group. “I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks,” she said.
However, ICE is not a police department, but a federal law enforcement agency under DHS. They regularly wear masks during enforcement operations to protect both their safety and the integrity of their enforcement operations.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons recently addressed the mask criticisms in a news conference, announcing the arrest of roughly 1,500 ICE targets in Wu’s home state of Massachusetts. “I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” he said.
After being asked by a reporter to clarify her comments, Wu appeared to walk back her comments, but did not deny smearing agents, claiming she only said that “no police department” wears masks.
WATCH:
Wu: I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks. We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks. NSC-131 routinely wears masks.
Reporter: Mayor, just to clarify, are you comparing ICE, you said, to NSC-131, a neo-Nazi group. Are you comparing them to a neo-Nazi group?
Wu: What I said is that Boston Police and no police department that I know of at the local level routinely wears masks.
In another interview with WBUR last week, Wu smeared ICE agents as “secret police who are wearing masks, who can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained.” She further claimed that ICE agents are “causing harm in our local communities” and that by protecting murderers and rapists, she is doing all she can to ensure people in Boston are “safe and healthy.”
Wu: We’re involved in four, about to be five, different lawsuits with this federal administration, and people are paying higher prices right now and looking at even higher. People are terrified for their lives and for their neighbors. Folks getting snatched off the street by secret police who are wearing masks, who can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained. Every aspect of what’s happening at the federal level is causing harm in our local communities. And it is a job of city government to do whatever we can to first and foremost ensure everyone is safe and healthy.
DHS responded on X, calling Wu’s comments “SICKENING” and noting that the officers “clearly identify themselves as law enforcement.” Masks are used by agents “to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected gang members, murders, and rapists,” DHS said.
Mayor Wu comparing ICE agents to neo-Nazis is SICKENING.
When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected gang members, murders,… https://t.co/BrRbkql31O
The White House also responded to Wu’s “disgusting, dangerous attacks” in a press release, slamming her for “fanning the flames of hate while ICE agents face unprecedented threats to themselves and their families.”
“Because of dangerous, unhinged smears from the Left, ICE officers are facing a 413% increase in assaults. President Trump is keeping his promise to the American people to deport illegal aliens. It’s disturbing that Democrats like Mayor Wu would side with illegal immigrants over Americans and stoke hatred against American law enforcement,” said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson.
They further showcased the mugshots of the murderers, sexual predators, pedophiles, and kidnappers that Michelle Wu is trying to protect:
She’s denigrating the same agents who just removed nearly 1,500 criminal illegal immigrants from the streets of her state in the largest-ever immigration enforcement operation — including these sick animals:
A 55-year-old Salvadoran national with an active Interpol Red Notice for aggravated homicide, robbery, aggravated kidnap, and theft in his home country of El Salvador.
A 32-year-old Guatemalan national and registered sex offender who was convicted for aggravated rape of a child with a ten-year age gap and has pending charges for five counts of indecent assault and battery.
A 37-year-old Honduran national whose most recent arrest was for rape, indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over, witness intimidation, and kidnapping of a minor by relative.
A 22-year-old Colombian national charged with kidnapping, aggravated rape, and indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over.
A 29-year-old Brazilian national charged with aggravated rape of a child by force, possession of child pornography, and dissemination of obscene material.
A 48-year-old Salvadoran national whose criminal history includes charges of aggravated rape of child by force, indecent assault and battery on a person under 14, and open and gross lewdness.
A 40-year-old Guatemalan national charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a family member, strangulation/suffocation, and intimidation of witness.
A 69-year-old Uruguayan national and registered sex offender with a conviction for indecent assault and battery on a seven-year-old child.
A 24-year-old Brazilian national with an active Interpol Red Notice in Brazil, where he is wanted for murder.
