Healey Demands ICE Stop Deportations From Massachusetts

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has helped hundreds of thousands of immigrants, many here illegally, and others with criminal records to resettle in the Bay State, and she wants them to remain here.

Her office says Healey fired off a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons, "demanding" that ICE "immediately stop using private aircraft at Hanscom Airfield" in Bedford, Massachusetts, to "quickly remove residents who have been detained."

"Flying these residents out of state and away from their support systems and legal counsel – often within hours of arrest – is intentionally cruel and purposely obstructs the due process and legal representation they are owed," Healey wrote.

"This is not the justice we believe in or stand for in Massachusetts or as Americans. This practice must stop," she wrote.

Healey's office claims a "significant majority" of detainees rounded up in ICE sweeps in Massachusetts "have no criminal convictions or charges."

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ICE says it rounded up 1,461 "illegal aliens" in Massachusetts in May, part of Operation Patriot, more than half of whom had "significant criminal convictions or charges."

According to ICE, 790 of the alien offenders were "charged with or convicted of crimes in the United States or abroad," including murder, child sex crimes, and drug trafficking.

Operation Patriot 2.0 in September netted more than 1,400 "illegal aliens" in Massachusetts, more than 600 of whom had "significant criminal convictions or pending criminal charges for crimes committed in the United States or were known foreign fugitives, said ICE."

The immigration sweeps "exposed the grave consequences of sanctuary policies and the urgent need for local leaders to prioritize their constituents' safety over politics," said Lyons in a statement.