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Breaking down the debate in Mass. over ICE agents wearing masks
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
It's National Doughnut Day, one of the few fake holidays we'll recognize in this newsletter. That's because there's an actual history dating back to World War I behind the day (which this year happens to also fall on the anniversary of the real D-Day). We'll also mention it because Dunkin' is offering customers a "free" doughnut with any beverage purchase today, among many other local doughnut day deals.
Now, to the news:
The new mask debate: The infamous COVID-19 mask wars may have faded in the rearview mirror. But in the wake of recent immigration enforcement sweeps by federal agents, a new debate over face coverings has ignited in Massachusetts. U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, the top federal prosecutor for the state, defended the use of face coverings by some immigration agents yesterday in an interview with WBUR's Tiziana Dearing, which followed criticism from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and others. "They are now wearing masks because of the lies that are being spewed by people suggesting that they are secret police or neo-Nazis," Foley said.
- The backstory: The COVID-19 pandemic opened up a medical exemption to general rules requiring law enforcement officers to keep their faces visible. And as NPR reported this spring, ICE policies appear to leave it up to individual operation commanders to decide whether to wear masks. During last weekend's WBUR Festival, Wu likened the agents to "secret police," and later noted the local white supremacist group NSC-131 "routinely wears masks."
- The reasoning: Asked yesterday by Tiziana why ICE agents should be able to wear masks when local police departments don't, Foley gave the same justification used by recent pro-Palestinian protesters: fear of doxxing, death threats and other personal consequences. "I am hopeful that if [local] undercover police officers were being threatened along with their families, that the mayor would allow them to conceal their faces during certain high-risk arrests to ensure their safety," Foley said. (Earlier this week, acting ICE director Todd Lyons also defended the masks, telling reporters that officers' photos were being taken and posted online "with death threats to their family and themselves.")
- Wu's response: As WBUR's Eve Zuckoff reports, Wu said yesterday during an event in Roslindale that Boston police officers face "very, very difficult situations every day" in which they make arrests, and yet do not wear masks. She reiterated that she believes the masks are part of a larger intimidation campaign by ICE. "What other definition of secret police is there — when people are getting snatched off the street by masked individuals, not being told where they're going, disappeared until somehow someone finds some information?" Wu asked.
- The latest: The White House itself entered the fray between Foley and Wu yesterday evening with a statement criticizing the mayor. Read more here.
Meanwhile in Milford: Marcelo Gomes Da Silva is home. The 18-year-old Milford High School junior, who was detained last weekend by ICE agents targeting his father, was released yesterday on a $2,000 bond. During a press conference flanked by U.S. Reps. Seth Moulton and Jake Auchincloss, Gomes Da Silva described having to stay in the Burlington ICE facility for six days, sleeping on a concrete floor with a mylar blanket, in a crowded open room with a toilet and no privacy. You can watch him speak here.
- Go deeper: The ICE facility in Burlington where dozens of immigrants are being detained is mainly an administrative office that is not set up to hold people for extended periods of time. WBUR's Miriam Wasser has more here on what lawyers have described as "abysmal” and "unsanitary" conditions.
- What's next: Gomes Da Silva likely has a long road ahead of him because of a backlog in immigration court, his attorney, Robin Nice, told WBUR. In the meantime, he intends to apply for asylum and could pursue a new visa.
While you were sleeping: A federal judge in Boston is temporarily blocking President Trump's latest move to prohibit foreign students from entering the U.S. to attend Harvard University. Hours after Harvard sued, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs issued a temporary restraining order late last night to stop Trump's executive order from taking effect until after the two sides make their case in court.
- Go deeper: The Associated Press has more on the human side of the legal fight: the foreign students who achieved their dream of getting admitted to Harvard who now don't know if they'll ever make it to the Cambridge campus.
P.S.— Why is the Healey administration planning to auction off seven state-owned properties? Take a guess with our weekly Boston News Quiz.
