(The Lion) — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a longtime Donald Trump adversary, now says her administration won’t interfere with federal law enforcement efforts to remove criminal illegal immigrants from the Bay State.
The Democrat recently announced she won’t be a barrier for the Trump administration as Immigration and Customs Enforcement removes criminal illegal immigrants. Boston was one of the first cities targeted during Trump’s first week in office.
Healey’s comments strike a much different tone than her old approach to shielding illegal immigrants.
After Trump’s election, she told MSNBC she would “absolutely not” cooperate with deportations. And as far back as February 2017, Healey told The Boston Globe she wasn’t opposed to making Massachusetts a sanctuary state.
“I’m not saying that I’m opposed to it,” Healey said back then. “The Legislature is absolutely entitled to discuss and debate it. I also think just the fact that we’re having a conversation about immigration is good. …
“I’m a believer, having worked with a number of police departments and law enforcement agencies around the state, that those decisions, and the decisions about the safety and well-being of a community, are really best left to the local officials, the local police chiefs, and certainly not the likes of a Donald Trump.”
In that same interview, she also said she supported the state’s eight sanctuary cities: Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Concord, Newton, Northampton and Somerville.
“I think we have a system that’s working well here,” Healey said. “There are a number of places that have adopted a status as a sanctuary city, and I think that that is working, so that’s probably what I think makes sense …”
Her tone is completely different now, as deportations have begun.
“Officials here follow the law. We are not a sanctuary state,” Healey told reporters this week, adding state officials will help “when it comes to investigating, prosecuting and holding accountable those who commit crimes in Massachusetts.”
Healey’s latest comments come after the U.S. Justice Department said it would pursue legal action against communities and liberal politicians that impede federal immigration enforcement officers.
“Laws and actions that threaten to impede Executive Branch immigration initiatives, including by prohibiting disclosures of information to federal authorities engaged in immigration-enforcement activities, threaten public safety and national security,” a DOJ memorandum said Wednesday.
“The Civil Division shall work with the newly established Sanctuary Cities Enforcement Working Group within the Office of the Associate Attorney General to identify state and local laws, policies, and activities that are inconsistent with Executive Branch immigration initiatives and, where appropriate, to take legal action to challenge such laws.”
During Trump’s first term, Massachusetts politicians attempted to interfere with ICE raids. Notably, state Rep. Michelle DuBois, a Democrat, warned Brockton residents about a rumored ICE raid in March 2017.
But there didn’t appear to be resistance Tuesday, Trump’s first full day in office, when raids took place in cities such as Chicago, Denver and Miami, yielding more than 300 arrests of illegal immigrants with prior criminal convictions.
Trump has promised to conduct the largest deportation effort in U.S. history. Deportation flights have already started, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, said Friday on X, posting pictures of handcuffed illegal immigrants being loaded onto military transport planes.
