Around New England
Michelle Wu and Maura Healey Won’t Cooperate With Trump On Mass Deportations
November 20, 2024
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu recently said her city will not cooperate with President-elect Donald Trump on mass deportations.
Trump has vowed to deport all of the more than 13 million illegal immigrants residing in the United States — a move opposed by Democrats like Wu.
“The last thing we want is for people who are part of our economy, part of our school system, part of our community, and the fabric of our city, to feel that all of a sudden they have to retreat into the shadows,” Wu told WCVB’s On The Record on Sunday, November 17.
“We want immigrants to know that it is safe for everyone, to be able to feel comfortable reaching out for emergency services, to report a crime, to ask for help, and generally to be part of our community,” she later added.
Tom Homan, who Trump has picked as the Border Czar for his administration, was unhappy to hear this from Wu.
“She’s not very smart, I’ll give her that,” Homan said, according to WHDH.
“So either she helps us or she gets the hell out of the way ’cause we’re going to do it,” he later added.
Wu brushed off the accusation that she is not smart.
“People can say whatever they want in politics,” Wu said while laughing, according to WHDH.
Boston is one of eight sanctuary cities in Massachusetts, according to CBS News. The others are Amherst, Cambridge, Chelsea, Concord, Newton, Northampton, and Somerville.
The term “sanctuary city” typically refers to a municipality that welcomes illegal immigrants through local government services. These municipalities limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Though Massachusetts has no sanctuary state policy in place, Governor Maura Healey also said she plans to not cooperate with the Trump administration on mass deportations.
She said the state police won’t cooperate with the incoming Trump administration on that matter.
“No, absolutely not,” Healey told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday, November 6. “I think that the key here is that every tool in the toolbox is going to be used to protect our citizens, to protect our residents, and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle.”
Yet, Healey said in February 2017, while serving as the state’s attorney general, that she wasn’t opposed to making Massachusetts a sanctuary state.
“I’m not saying that I’m opposed to it,” Healey said, as NewBostonPost previously reported. “I’m just saying that as a practical — and I think that 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.”
Healey also voiced support for the Bay State’s eight sanctuary cities at the time.
“I think this is an area where there’s some misinformation,” Healey said of sanctuary cities. “Sanctuary cities, and the term ‘sanctuary city’ has a different meaning in different places. It’s more a descriptive political term almost and less of a legal one in terms of what it actually means. What it may mean in practice may vary from city to city. And I’m a believer that — and having worked with a number of police departments and law enforcement agencies around this state — that those decisions and the decisions about the safety and well-being of a community are really best left to the local officials, local police chiefs, and certainly not the likes of a Donald Trump, and it’s one of many reasons that I’ve opposed what he’s done and often around immigration.”
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