"I don’t know of any police department that routinely wears masks. We know that there are other groups that routinely wear masks. NSC-131 routinely wears masks," Wu told reporters. NSC-131 is a neo-Nazi group based in New England.
When asked whether she was comparing ICE to NSC-131, Wu responded, "What I said is that Boston police, and no other police department that I know of at the local level, routinely wears masks."
This came after Wu came under fire for comments the week prior, in which she said, "People are terrified for their lives and for their neighbors, folks getting snatched off the street by secret police who are wearing masks and can offer no justification for why certain people are being taken and then detained," per the Boston Herald.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the outlet in response to Wu’s latest comments, "Boston Mayor Michelle Wu doubled down on her disgusting, dangerous attacks on law enforcement yesterday when she compared Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to neo-Nazis — just days after the so-called ‘sanctuary city’ mayor smeared ICE and other federal agents as 'secret police.'"
"If the mayor had any shame, she’d be embarrassed for fanning the flames of hate while ICE agents face unprecedented threats to themselves and their families — but that’d be asking too much in today’s Democrat Party," she added. "She’s denigrating the same agents who just removed nearly 1,500 criminal illegal immigrants from the streets of her state, in the largest-ever immigration enforcement operation."
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said late Wednesday that "politicians need to stop putting my people in danger. I’m not asking that they stop. I’m demanding that they stop."
"Here’s what I have to say to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and anyone else stirring up the outrage about what ICE does: These are real people with real families you’re hurting with your ridiculous rhetoric and inflammatory comments and it’s time to remember that," Lyons added.
