Thirty of the individuals arrested had felony convictions, according to a press release from ICE.
Boston Acting Field Office Director Todd Lyons called the arrests a “targeted enforcement” that built on an earlier crackdown on drug trafficking.
“These were ones that were foreign nationals that had been either arrested previously, and had been convicted for drug charges, or had been arrested and were pending current felony drug charges,” Lyons said.
But Susan Church, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based immigration attorney, says it’s wrong to characterize these arrests as being connected somehow.
“I think that there’s a lot of exaggeration here, with this being a ‘sweep’ because sweeps generally target a particular gang, or a particular criminal enterprise,” Church said.
In a statement, ICE said local politicians are sheltering people in the country illegally at the expense of public safety.
