Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is demanding the Trump administration account for all ICE arrests in the state.
In a letter March 6 to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Healey gave the administration one week to provide the legal basis for every ICE arrest in Massachusetts.
Over the course of two arrest operations in May and September of 2025, the Trump administration said it arrested almost 3,000 people. Healy said DHS has shared information on only a small fraction of those arrests.
She challenged ICE'S claims that it's targeting the "worst of the worst" and instead said the government's own data shows the majority of people detained have no criminal record at all.
“We have seen so many instances of people who have been picked up and taken away, families separated, kids who've lost a mother or father – breadwinner gone from their family,” she said in an interview with NEPM’s Fab 413. “Most all of these people are working, paying taxes, contributing to our community and our economy. And it just sickens me. I want an accounting.”
The Department of Homeland Security responded on the social media platform X. A joint statement by ICE director Todd Lyons and US Attorney Leah Foley said: “Isn’t it rich that the very governor who refuses to share information with federal law enforcement is now demanding information on ICE arrests?”
“The truth is every single alien arrested… was in violation of US Immigration law,” the statement continued. “The majority of those had committed serious crimes in the United States or in their native countries. Most were released due to local and state jurisdictions refusing to cooperate with ICE.”
But Healy cited several examples of people arrested in Massachusetts who had no criminal record, based on information her office collected. Among them: a high school honors student on his way to volleyball practice; a mother of a quadriplegic child with a pending asylum application who was sent away from her child; a father of an autistic child working in construction with no criminal history and a pending asylum application.
Healy said ICE has provided almost no information on most of the arrests - leading to widespread fear among local communities, with children not coming to school, crime victims and witnesses not coming forward, and some residents not getting health care.
In her letter, Healy said she wants to know the identity of every person ICE has arrested since January 2025, as well as the legal basis, status of the case, number of cases that involve separating a parent from a child, and which ICE protocols were followed to identify or protect children of those arrested.
The public response by the Trump Administration does not suggest it plans to give Healy the information she demands.
When asked by NEPM what Healy will do if her demand is not met by her deadline of March 13, her spokesperson Karissa Hand wrote in an email: "ICE should have this basic information readily available, and the Governor expects DHS will fulfill her request."
Healy has also filed legislation to keep ICE out of courthouses, schools, and other sensitive locations in Massachusetts.
