Boston Mayor Wu blasted by feds for comparing masked ICE agents to neo-Nazi group

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was blasted again by federal officials for her criticism of immigration enforcement in the city, this time for her “sickening” remarks comparing the mask-wearing ICE authorities to a prominent neo-Nazi group.

The comparison drew a scathing response from the President Donald Trump’s White House on Thursday night.

“Boston Mayor Michelle Wu doubled down on her disgusting, dangerous attacks on law enforcement yesterday when she compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to neo-Nazis — just days after the so-called ‘sanctuary city’ mayor smeared ICE and other federal agents as ‘secret police,'” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

“If the mayor had any shame, she’d be embarrassed for fanning the flames of hate while ICE agents face unprecedented threats to themselves and their families — but that’d be asking too much in today’s Democrat Party. She’s denigrating the same agents who just removed nearly 1,500 criminal illegal immigrants from the streets of her state, in the largest-ever immigration enforcement operation,” Jackson added.

The White House statement came on the heels of a warning the ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons issued to Boston’s progressive mayor late Wednesday night. The top ICE official weighed in hours after Wu responded to a rebuke from the U.S. Attorney Leah Foley at City Hall, by doubling down on equating federal immigration authorities to “secret police” — statements that Foley had criticized as “reckless and inflammatory.”

In a video posted to the official U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement social media page on X, Lyons spoke generally at first, saying that “politicians need to stop putting my people in danger,” by making up “talking points that get activists riled up,” before making it clear he was referring to Boston’s mayor.

“I’m not asking that they stop; I’m demanding that they stop,” Lyons said. “Here’s what I have to say to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and anyone else stirring up the outrage about what ICE does.

“These are real people with real families you’re hurting with your ridiculous rhetoric and inflammatory comments and it’s time to remember that,” he said.

Lyons was not specific about which remarks prompted his message, but the video was posted hours after Wu spoke at length with reporters at City Hall earlier in the day about Foley “attacking” her over an interview she gave to WBUR last week, where she referred to federal immigration authorities as secret police.

The mayor, who has tussled with the Trump administration and Congress over immigration and mass deportations, told the outlet that people are “getting snatched off the street by secret police who are wearing masks and can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained.”

Foley called the mayor’s comments a “gross misrepresentation and disservice to the public,” saying that ICE authorities are “arresting individuals who are here illegally, which is a violation of federal law.”

“Federal agents in marked jackets and vests are masking their faces because people like Mayor Wu have created false narratives about their mission,” Foley said. “Federal agents and their children are being threatened, doxxed and assaulted. That is why they must hide their faces.”

Wu doubled down on her remarks to reporters Wednesday, but went a step further, by seemingly comparing ICE agents who wear masks to the neo-Nazi group, NSC-131, saying that they are “intimidating residents.”

“I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks,” Wu said. “We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks. NSC-131 routinely wears masks.”

When asked specifically whether she was comparing ICE to the neo-Nazi group based in New England, Wu didn’t say no.

“What I said is that Boston police, and no other police department that I know of at the local level, routinely wears masks,” Wu said.

Her remarks drew a fresh round of criticism from federal officials, including the White House, on Thursday. The White House’s official rapid response account posted a video of the exchange, which it described as “shocking,” while the Department of Homeland Security called the comparison “sickening.”

“Mayor Wu comparing ICE agents to neo-Nazis is sickening,” DHS posted on X. “When our heroic law enforcement officers conduct operations, they clearly identify themselves as law enforcement while wearing masks to protect themselves from being targeted by known and suspected gang members.

“Attacks and demonization of our brave law enforcement is wrong. ICE officers are now facing a 413% increase in assaults,” the federal department said.

Wu didn’t back down from her comments about ICE being “secret police” who wear masks, when asked about the matter again at a Thursday campaign event, but notably did not bring up the neo-Nazi comparison again.

“The U.S. attorney is attacking me for saying what Bostonians see with their own eyes,” Wu said. “We’ve seen the videos. We’ve seen it in our neighborhoods, on our streets.

“And 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, disappearing until someone somehow finds some information, not given justification for why they are being taken?” the mayor added.

Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union, danced a fine line, when asked Thursday whether he agreed with the mayor’s assessment about ICE being secret police.

“As a police officer, I can tell you that I’m not going to second-guess what’s going on at a federal level, nor am I going to speak for the mayor and her interpretation of what she’s saying about what’s going on with federal police officers,” Calderone said.

“I will back the mayor up and tell you that any police officer, any law enforcement member in the commonwealth that’s having a problem, our membership will respond, defend them, help them and protect the citizen and what’s going on.”

The BPPA has endorsed Wu for reelection in the mayoral race, and Calderone was on hand as a speaker at her Roslindale campaign event.

Boston is a sanctuary city under the Trust Act, which limits local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

“We will uphold the law in the commonwealth,” Calderone said. “We will take direction from the police commissioner in the city of Boston, just like we’ve done for the 31 years I’ve been around.”

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