Mayor Wu's week in the crosshairs of the feds

For Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, it’s been a week of tangling with federal officials over immigration enforcement.

If she threw the first punch — accusing ICE agents of behaving like “secret police” in masks, "snatching" people off the street and terrifying communities — the feds were unbowed, and quick to strike back. In a Monday press conference in Boston, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, flanked by other law enforcement and the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney, touted making nearly 1,500 arrests in May and stood their ground on the masks.

“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks,” a visibly frustrated ICE chief Todd Lyons told reporters. “But I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line.”

The heat ratcheted up from there, when U.S. Attorney Leah Foley put out a video Wednesday taking the mayor to task and the following day on WBUR said agents are being targeted because of comments like Wu's. Meanwhile, the mayor repeated her criticism of ICE agents wearing masks, asserting that Boston police don't hide their faces, while noting a New England neo-Nazi gang does.

By week’s end, the White House also took aim at Wu, calling her reference to secret police “disgusting” and dangerous.

Through the onslaught, Wu has maintained her characteristic calm. While critics warn her tough talk could backfire, putting Boston in the crosshairs of an administration that’s already coming hard at the city and its institutions, supporters are behind Wu, saying the mayor needs to stand up to the Trump administration — and for due process for immigrant residents.

“Mayor Michelle Wu understands that hiding under the bed and thinking that they won't come after you isn’t a viable strategy,” said Jonathan Cohn, executive director of Progressive Massachusetts. “Anything that you can do to slow them down and make those attacks more difficult is what the city should be doing, not trying to avoid attention.”

In his view, it's good policy and good politics; "show fight," as he said.

To Erin O’Brien, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, the mayor is trying to be a leader in a time of uncertainty.

"Does it come with risk for Boston, potentially? Definitely,” she said. “But Michelle Wu and her administration reason that not standing up to individuals being taken off the streets — oftentimes without their due process claims recognized — out of the country, and then all of a sudden we can't get them back. She sees that as a threat beyond all the others.”

Only three months ago, a Congressional committee grilled Wu and three other big-city mayors over so-called “sanctuary” city policies. Wu maintains that Boston obeys the law; police are not permitted to assist in civil immigration arrests, but they can and do work with ICE on criminal matters.

Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, a frequent Wu critic, suggested in a statement to WBUR that he would not engage in a war of words with federal law enforcement.

“During these uncertain times in our city and country, as challenging as it may seem, I continue to believe that respectful conversations are critical — especially when both sides fundamentally disagree with each other,” he said. Flynn said he has previously recommended that Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox meet in person with ICE's Lyons.

Boston's largest police union is backing Wu in her campaign for reelection, but its president, Larry Calderone, was wary of wading into the ICE controversy this past week.

“As far as the mayor and what's going on between herself and federal levels, I don't comment on that," Calderone said at a press event. "That has nothing to do with the members that I represent or policing the citizens of Boston."

While numerous recent ICE arrests in Greater Boston have turned chaotic, Calderone had no comfort for the agents' critics: "Make no mistake, I'm going to support law enforcement. In any way, shape or form within the confines of the laws of the commonwealth and the direction of the Boston police commissioner.”

Wu’s willingness to push back on the Trump administration separates her from some other Democratic mayors of large cities. When President Trump threatened Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser with funding cuts unless the city painted over its Black Lives Matter Plaza, she complied. And after Trump blamed Democratic leadership for the severity of the recent southern California wildfires, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass welcomed him to the city and said his presence was “very much appreciated.”

But Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who sat alongside Wu during the March Congressional hearing, is taking on Trump, perhaps to his political gain. He has called Trump "tyrannical" and a "monster," both for launching a Department of Justice investigation into the city's hiring practices and for proposed budget cuts.

So far, Wu's stance on how immigration officers are carrying out arrests has not drawn criticism from her leading opponent in the upcoming mayoral election. At recent candidate forums, Josh Kraft has called ICE tactics "abhorrent" and "reprehensible."

Others in Boston political circles, such as Fatema Ahmed, executive director of the Muslim Justice League, say Wu should go even further to protect immigrants.

“While to some people it might seem like she is putting up resistance to what's happening, there are a lot of policies and things that she could actually do to help,” Ahmed said.

On Thursday evening, after the White House issued its statement attacking the mayor, Wu doubled down on her position and drew a line between local police and federal immigration agents.

"We hold our officers to a certain set of standards that reinforces trust,” she said. “Tactics matter."

As for the Trump administration's criticisms of her, Wu said her job is to keep Boston "the safest major city in the country."

“That means protecting our community and also speaking the truth when there are things happening in our community that are not making us safer," she said.

The Trump administration has shown a penchant for punishing cities and institutions with which it has disagreements. It's pulling billions of dollars in funding from Harvard University and slashing support for science, food assistance and housing that hit Boston hard. It has a pending investigation of the city for alleged antisemitism. And from very early on, immigration officials have threatened to bring "hell" to Boston.

" We don't know what's coming next,” said O’Brien of UMass Boston. “Democracy is a fight and Michelle Wu is directly in that fight."