Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that about 40 illegal immigrants were apprehended after a widespread operation on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.
The yield included a documented MS-13 gang member and at least one child sex offender.
ICE said in a news release it worked with the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and the Coast Guard in the operation Tuesday on the Massachusetts islands. Names of those apprehended were not released.
“Operations like this highlight the strong alliances that ICE shares with our fellow law enforcement partners,” Patricia Hyde, acting field office director of ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston, said in the news release. “ICE officers and FBI, DEA and ATF agents worked together to arrest a significant number of illegal-alien offenders, which included at least one child predator.
“Our partners in the U.S. Coast Guard facilitated a safe and efficient transport of the alien offenders off Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, ensuring the safety of the residents of those communities. ICE and our federal partners made a strong stand for prioritizing public safety by arresting and removing illegal aliens from our New England neighborhoods.”
At least 12 people were detained and removed from Nantucket on Tuesday, the Nantucket Current reported, in what appears to be the largest immigration enforcement operation on the island in years.
The Current posted Tuesday a video on X of detainees being transported to a Coast Guard patrol boat. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the video that night with a post on X that read, “Bye, bye!”
Nantucket Police Department Lt. Angus MacVicar told the Current that island police were notified Monday that ICE would be arriving Tuesday and that his department was not asked to assist. Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan Searle told the Vineyard Gazette that he also was notified in advance by ICE that arrests were going to be made on Martha’s Vineyard and his department wouldn’t be involved.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat and a staunch opponent of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, slammed the operation Wednesday because local police were left out of the loop.
“Local police chiefs have zero information about what’s happening in their communities,” she said at a news conference, according to the Boston Herald.
“We at the state level have zero information about what’s happening in communities. And that needs to change. We need to get answers. We need to get clarification from ICE. And it was very disturbing, needless to say, to wake up to that news about that activity on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket,” Healey said.
Kimberly Milka, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, said in the news release the operation “highlights FBI Boston’s ongoing commitment to supporting our partners at the Department of Homeland Security with identifying and apprehending those who are breaking the law by violating our immigration laws and, in some cases, committing crimes that endanger public safety.”
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