Mayor Michelle Wu hits back after ICE Director Todd Lyons vows to 'flood' Boston: 'Stop attacking cities'

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Aug 21, 2025

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BOSTON — Mayor Michelle Wu hit back at ICE Director Todd Lyons’ vow to “flood” Boston in response to her refusal to strip its sanctuary protections, saying that it doesn’t make sense for the feds to target a city known for being among the country’s safest.

“We comply with and follow all the laws, city, state and federal, and we will not back down from the communities who have made us the safest major city in the country,” Wu told reporters Thursday at an unrelated event. “This administration needs to stop attacking cities to hide their own failures.

“We know how to take care of our neighbors here in Boston without the interference, coercion, intimidation, bullying or threats from the federal government,” Wu said.

Wu was responding directly to remarks Lyons made Wednesday on the Howie Carr Show, when he said there would be a larger ICE presence in Boston due to the mayor’s stated intention to defy a Trump administration order to remove the city’s Trust Act, which limits local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

“We’re definitely going to … flood the zone, especially in sanctuary jurisdictions,” Lyons said. “Boston and Massachusetts decided to say that they wanted to stay sanctuary. Sanctuary does not mean safer streets. It means more criminal aliens out and about the neighborhood. But 100%, you will see a larger ICE presence.”

Asked directly about Lyons’ vow, and what actions the city may take to counter the potential for an attempted federal takeover of local law enforcement — akin to what’s taken place with President Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, D.C., where ICE agents have reportedly appeared alongside the National Guard and federal agents — Wu declined to speculate on a scenario she said may be illegal.

“I don’t need to speculate in hypotheticals,” Wu said. “I am not sure what those words actually mean in terms of actions that are within the bounds and the parameters of the law. We already follow the law. We already work every single day to ensure that people who commit crimes and harm in our communities are held accountable, regardless of immigration status.

“So it, from the beginning, has not made sense how there is this extraordinary push to say this is about safety, when, in fact, in the safest major city in the country, we are already achieving progress,” the mayor added. “We need to follow the law, not only at the city level, but the federal government needs to follow the law and the Constitution as well.”

The latest back and forth between Boston’s mayor and the Trump administration kicked off last week when Attorney General Pam Bondi sent a letter to Wu and leaders of other cities and states identified by the Department of Justice as sanctuary jurisdictions ordering them to “eliminate laws, policies and practices that impede federal law enforcement.”

Wu stated her refusal to comply on the Tuesday deadline.

Bondi, who described Boston’s sanctuary policies as a threat to national security and a violation of federal law, has threatened to prosecute city officials and withhold federal funds should there be a lack of compliance.

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