'We are not targeting anyone': Foley says she'll uphold immigration law but won't target local officials

The newly appointed U.S. attorney for Massachusetts said her office will not target local politicians or police who disagree with President Trump's immigration directives.

However, Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley stressed that no one is "immune from federal prosecution" if they interfere with the government's enforcement actions.

"I want to make it clear that we are not targeting anyone," Foley told reporters during a roundtable meeting at federal court in Boston Wednesday. She said the focus right now from the Department of Justice "is to find and remove illegal immigrants in this country who have committed crimes."

Foley made her remarks in response to questions about the Trump administration's recent demand that federal prosecutors charge local officials who refuse to comply with federal immigration orders.

In recent weeks, many high-profile leaders in Trump's administration and several Republican Congress members have falsely accused Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other Massachusetts leaders of creating safe havens for immigrants who commit violent crimes.

Last week, the leader of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked Wu to appear before the panel to answer questions about the city's Trust Act, a policy in place since 2014 that says local police are not required to assist federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers unless the groups are investigating certain serious crimes. The governor has issued similar guidance to state police.

"I disagree with Mayor Wu and Gov. Healey that all resources should not be dedicated to making our communities safer," Foley said. However, she added that "not helping is not obstruction."

"We're not asking them to do our jobs," she said. "ICE is not asking them to do ICE's job. We want them to do their jobs, but we would also expect that they don't interfere."

Her office, Foley said, is in talks with the governor's administration and district attorneys across the state in hopes there are "areas where we can work together."

On Wednesday, Foley's office issued a press statement about the arrest of an El Salvadoran man who lived in Chelsea and will be deported after pleading guilty and being sentenced to one count of unlawful reentry last year. In the past two decades, the man was deported from the U.S. five times.

The announcement described him as an "Illegal Alien" in its title, an apparent departure from language used in other recent statements from the office.

When asked, Foley said she was unaware of any probe into local FBI agents who investigated crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

Foley was quickly sworn into office in late January, after former U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy's expected departure days before Trump assumed his second term. The U.S. Senate must confirm her to the role.

A career prosecutor, the 54-year-old who began her career in D.C. before coming to Massachusetts in 2006, said she does not anticipate any issues with her confirmation.

She expects to shift the department's focus to place "a very significant emphasis" on cases involving victims, drug trafficking and violent crimes. Much of her earlier career as an assistant U.S. attorney focused on drug-related prosecutions.

"We have got to stop the overdoses and prevent younger people from becoming addicted to drugs that will ruin their lives," she said.

Foley told reporters she planned to pursue drug dealers who sell to people who die from overdoses, and that she would fight against efforts to establish legal sites where people could use drugs under medical supervision.

"Safe injection sites is a misnomer," she said. "You do not assist someone who is struggling with addiction by aiding and abetting. I believe that whatever resources would go into such sites should be diverted instead to treatment, to actually help these people — not to try to kill them."