On February 22, Tom Homan, White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operation (also known as Border Czar of the United States) stated at the Conservative Political Action Conference, “The police commissioner of Boston, you said you’d double down on not helping the law enforcement offices of ICE. I’m coming to Boston, I’m bringing hell with me.” Homan’s statement was allegedly in response to the police commissioner of Boston, Michael Cox, saying that he is obligated to follow the laws instead of what the ICE officials tell him to do. However, there is no official interview with Michael Cox that Homan was referencing. Homan then continued, saying, “You’re not a police commissioner. Take that badge off your chest, put it in your desk drawer. Because you became a politician. You forgot what it’s like to be a cop.”
Police Commissioner Cox’s alleged statements agree with a 2017 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Ruling that found that state and local law enforcements cannot hold someone solely for a violation of immigration laws, even if asked to do so by federal immigration authorities. Additionally, since 2014, Boston has upheld the “Trust Act”. According to the official city of Boston website, the Trust Act “distinguishes between ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) divisions, allowing BPD to collaborate with ICE-HSI on issues of significant public safety, such as human trafficking, child exploitation, drug and weapons trafficking, and cybercrimes, while refraining from involvement in civil immigration enforcement.”
Mayor Michelle Wu made a public statement in support of the Boston police commissioner in a post on Bluesky, a social media site, writing, “This is our city. We’re going to continue following & enforcing the laws to keep all Bostonians safe. And it goes without saying that our police commissioner has my complete confidence & support.”
On March 24, Tom Homan traveled to Boston to oversee the arrest of 370 people living in Massachusetts, all of whom Homan alleged were in the country illegally. Homan said that the majority of the people who have been detained by ICE in this Boston raid are “significant criminals,” claiming they are fugitives, murderers, and child predators. However, local activists in Boston have said that non-criminals are being detained as well. Gladys Vega, president of La Colaborativa, an organization dedicated to supporting Latinx immigrants in the Greater Boston area, explained the negative impacts of this raid on communities: “It’s creating panic, it’s creating a situation where the fear is taking over and people are not showing up to doctor’s appointments, they’re not showing up to school, they’re not going in huge numbers to the church.”
Rumesya Ozturk
On March 25, Turkish Ph.D. student Rumesya Ozturk at Tufts University, who is in the US on a Student Visa, was detained by immigration authorities. In videos of the incident, many note how the authorities were plainly clothed and placed Ozturk into an unmarked van They then moved Ozturk out of the state of MA. The video footage of her arrest specifically shows a male agent waving at her before approaching Ozturk. They then have a brief conversation before Ozturk attempts to walk away, but is blocked from doing so and is forced into handcuffs. While being arrested, Ozturk screamed “What’s going on?”. She was unanswered and was surrounded by more agents before being addressed by the initial agent, saying,“Ok, we’re the police, relax.” These agents arresting Ozturk did not identify themselves as law enforcement until they had already cuffed Ozturk.
In the state of Massachusetts, federal agents are not legally required to explicitly state they are federal agents when arresting you; however, they are required to present credentials verifying their identity upon arrest. They then escorted her into an unmarked black SUV in which Ozturk was transported around New England and flown to Louisiana. During this time, she was not given access to an attorney.
Although a federal judge ordered that Ozturk not be moved out of the state, by the time the ruling was released, she had already been moved to New Hampshire, then Vermont, and then flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana.United States District Judge Denise Casper of Boston issued a ruling stating that Ozturk cannot be removed from the United States “until further order of this court.” On April 1, lawyers for the Justice Department argued that Judge Casper lacks the jurisdiction to decide Ozturk’s case. The Justice Department’s lawyers argued that Ozturk’s petition must be filed by her lawyers in the jurisdiction where she was detained, meaning that the case needs to be transferred to Louisiana.
In 2024, Ozturk co-wrote (with 4 other Tufts students) an Op-ed article for the Tufts Daily that criticized the university’s response to student activism surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict. The students wanted Tufts to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” inform the students of investments, and divest from companies with both direct and indirect ties to Israel. A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Ozturk’s visa had been terminated, despite Tufts president Sunil Kumar’s statement that Ozturk was in “good immigration standing.” The spokesperson said that investigations found that she was a supporter of Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist group. The spokesperson did not provide evidence of her support of Hamas, and there has been no further explanation of her connection to this group. Friends of Ozturk have publicly stated that she was not otherwise involved in protests on campus. Tufts’ president declared to the court that the opinion piece was not in violation of the school’s policies surrounding freedom of expression.
Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai filed a writ of habeas corpus in Vermont federal court, an order that would make it so ICE agents must bring Rumeysa before the court to make inquiry on the legality of her detention.
On April 24, a judge denied the government’s request for the transfer of Ozturk back to Vermont. U.S. District Judge William K Sessions ruled that Oztruk must be returned to Vermont by May1. Sessions ruled that Ozturk must be transferred to Vermont, as that was where her habeas corpus petition was filed. The Justice Department has tried to appeal the decision and then they tried to ask Sessions to pause the order for transfer. Sessions refused, explaining that delaying Ozturk’s transfer would lengthen the detention that was the center of the issue.
Education Funding Cut
On March 28, President Trump announced that they had terminated 106 million dollars in K-12 education grants for massachusetts. “Education Stabilization Fund” which was a fund that was started to address pandemic-related learning deficits, support building upgrades, professional development, and more, had its time limit abruptly stopped. Governor Maura Healey’s office stated that the US Department of Education informed all states of their decision to end the period used for the “Federal Education Stabilization Fund” at 5:03 pm on the 28, the decision went into effect at 5:00 pm that same day.
Governor Healey’s office said in February “the Trump administration had just reaffirmed that MAssachuetts had until March 2026 to spend the funds.” US Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote that “After careful review, the Department is modifying the liquidation period to end on March 28, 2025. The Department has concluded that the further extension of the liquidation period for the aforementioned grants, already well past the period of performance, was not justified. You and your subrecipients have had ample time to liquidate obligations.”
Public Schools survive off of federal grants, and to simply remove over 100 million dollars from their budgets is astounding. The Massachusetts Speaker of the House, Ronald Mariano, said that “Canceling funds that schools have already built into their budgets is reckless, and shows a blatant disregard for the needs of our students and schools.”
The districts that will most be affected are primarily cities. Springfield will have 47.3 million dollars cut, New Bedform will lose 15.6 million dollars of funding cut, Fitchburg will lose 6.6 million, Everett will lose 4.9 million, and Revere will lose 4.6 million.