Boston, a sanctuary city facing a federal lawsuit for its policies obstructing deportation operations, has freed more than 200 criminally accused illegal aliens from police custody in defiance of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention requests, according to a Washington Examiner review of annual noncompliance reports.
In 2014, the Democrat-dominated Boston City Council passed the Boston Trust Act, directing the Boston Police Department to disregard ICE detainers.
ICE detention requests, known as detainers, ask local law enforcement agencies to temporarily keep illegal immigrants who were arrested on criminal charges behind bars for a prolonged period, up to 48 hours beyond typical release times, until immigration agents arrive and can assume custody. As part of the noncompulsory requests, police departments are asked to then hand the suspects over to federal immigration authorities or at least notify ICE in advance of their release should they be bailed out or let go without bond.
Under the city ordinance, BPD officers are forbidden from detaining a person solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer after the suspect becomes eligible to be released, except for a few exemptions, such as when a criminal warrant is issued or the subject was convicted of a violent crime.
Since the signing of the Boston Trust Act in 2014, in accordance with the ordinance, the BPD has refused to honor at least 238 detainer requests.
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In 2024, BPD Commissioner Michael A. Cox reported to the Boston city clerk’s office that 15 civil immigration detainers were lodged with the police department during that calendar year.
“DHS has determined that probable cause exists that the subject is a removable alien,” ICE personnel said in each detention petition to the BPD. However, none of the requests were acted upon pursuant to the Boston Trust Act, and zero immigration suspects were further detained by the BPD or transferred over to ICE custody.
Such has been the case for more than a decade in Boston. In 2023, the BPD ignored 19 detainers, 12 in 2022, two in 2021, 107 in 2018, 68 in 2017, and 15 in 2016, either transporting illegal immigrant defendants to court for arraignment, at which point the BPD has no authority to hold them, or outright releasing detainees from jail.
Notably, in 2015, the BPD was a cooperative partner with ICE’s enforcement efforts, fulfilling all nine detention requests from federal immigration officers. BPD reports for the years 2019 and 2020, though, could not be located within Legistar, the city’s legislative management system.
The BPD’s yearly numbers, however, may be undercounts, possibly by wide margins. ICE personnel said they sent 198 detainers to the BPD in 2024, far higher than the commissioner’s figures. Accordingly, the city council ordered a hearing to discuss the discrepancy between the requests received, by the BPD’s count, and ICE’s number.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security indicated to the Washington Examiner that the total number of ICE detainers issued may be more than Boston reported.
According to Cox, the BPD does not maintain a separate database of ICE detainer requests received “to ensure continued compliance with the Boston Trust Act.”
In 2019, the Boston Trust Act was amended to specify that BPD personnel are strictly prohibited from assisting federal immigration enforcement in any form, such as asking about a suspect’s immigration status, sharing information with ICE, conducting arrests based on administrative ICE warrants, and turning over detainees to ICE.
According to the updated ordinance, which was unanimously approved by the Boston City Council in response to mass deportations under the first Trump administration, the revisions added a requirement for the BPD to train all officers on these provisions.
On Thursday, the Justice Department launched a lawsuit challenging the Boston Trust Act, saying it instructs BPD “to categorically flout federal immigration detainer requests so that removable aliens can evade ICE apprehension.”
When local law enforcement abides by immigration detainers, federal officers are able to arrest deportable aliens in a secure, controlled environment, such as detention centers, instead of searching for at-large suspects in the community, according to ICE. The latter situation expends scarce government resources and puts public safety and the lives of arresting officers at risk.
According to the federal complaint filed against city leadership, criminal charges often cited in detainers by ICE’s Boston field office include homicide, larceny, and sexual offenses. Assault and drug trafficking are the two top charges against suspects ICE seeks to round up, according to the lawsuit. “Due to the Boston Trust Act, many of these criminals were released directly into Boston communities” despite detainers in place.
For example, in January, ICE officers arrested Brauly Aybar-Alcantara, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was wanted for a slew of charges, including indecent assault, battery, and gross lewdness. The BPD apprehended him in July 2024, and ICE attempted to facilitate a custodial transfer via detainer request, “but was forced by the noncooperative jurisdiction” to nab Aybar-Alcantara on the streets, not until half a year later.
The sanctuary city showdown brewing in Boston follows months of jabs exchanged between the Trump administration and Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat who was named as a plaintiff in the DOJ lawsuit.
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Late last year, Boston city councilors adopted a resolution reaffirming the Boston Trust Act ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. In an August letter, Wu told Attorney General Pam Bondi that “Boston will never back down.”
“Federal lawsuits are certainly one form of leverage that the administration can bring to bear against sanctuary jurisdictions, as we have seen in other places around the country,” Ira Mehlman, the media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told the Washington Examiner.
More immediately, Mehlman said, ICE could ramp up enforcement actions in Boston.
Over the weekend, ICE officials announced they will crack down on illegal immigration in Boston and beyond through a Massachusetts-based operation, called “Patriot 2.0,” targeting illegal immigrants with criminal records.
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“All of this, of course, could be easily avoided if Boston and other jurisdictions simply honor detainer requests for deportable aliens who wind up in the custody of local law enforcement,” Mehlman said. “While these sorts of policies may appeal to a small group of political activists, there is no constituency in Boston or anywhere else to protect criminal aliens from removal.”
The Washington Examiner contacted Wu’s press office for comment.