According to Fox News’ Bill Melugin, who was covering immigration in Boston this week, the agents was in close proximity to a school during the operation in order to arrest a murder suspect. Activists intervened and obstructed ICE officers, with one individual later posting a video online bragging about running the agents out of the area and falsely claiming ICE was “trying to kidnap kids from school.”
"They shielded a killer," Melugin wrote on X.
The incident took place in Somerville, Massachusetts, a self-declared sanctuary city. ICE’s efforts were part of a broader ICE operation in Massachusetts that has been one of the largest since President Donald Trump returned to office in January. ICE teams, including personnel brought in from other parts of the country, conducted coordinated arrests across the state throughout the week.
Patricia Hyde, head of ICE Boston, told Fox News that the region has seen an alarming rise in criminal illegal aliens freely walking the streets, including individuals previously convicted of child rape.
"It's not unusual. Due to the open border policies, we are finding that plenty of people who have been previously deported and committed heinous crimes and were removed from the country are now back here, just living among us," Hyde said. "And now that's our job to go round them up."
ICE agents have encountered increasing resistance from sanctuary jurisdictions and activist groups. In a separate incident on Thursday, an activist reportedly attempted to interfere with the arrest of a handcuffed illegal immigrant by grabbing onto the individual to stop the apprehension.
"I think the lack of cooperation is getting worse and worse, and it’s putting law enforcement lives in danger," Hyde said, though she emphasized that ICE will continue with its enforcement operations.
"We're not going away. It might take us longer. It might be harder, but we're not going away, we're here," Hyde added. "We know what the American people voted for. We understand that we work for the American people and we're going to be here until we send everyone home."
