BOSTON (WHDH) - The U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts weighed in Thursday on the Trump Administration’s divisive immigration policies during a roundtable conversation with reporters that lasted more than an hour.
U.S. Attorney Leah Foley, who has been on the job for a year, said ICE agents who work in the Department of Homeland Security are protecting the public, and risking their lives. She said the agents are unfairly criticized.
“We don’t have any control over ICE surge operations,” said Foley. “Stop with the hyperbole. If you have something and you believe it’s a crime, you can call the police, you can call the FBI. But just speculating or throwing that out, ‘everyone’s constitutional rights are being violated,’ really? really?”
There have been several high profile ICE operations in Massachusetts in the last year, including the arrest of a Tufts University student in March, 2025. The Turkish student was eventually released from custody and a judge recently terminated proceedings aimed at getting her deported.
There was also an effort to deport the mother of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew in November 2025 while she was in the process of trying to get a green card.
“This is the priority of this administration and it was made clear from the beginning that federal law was going to be enforced,” Foley said.
Given the strong objection to ICE raids in Massachusetts, 7NEWS asked Foley if she finds it difficult being a Trump-appointed prosecutor in the state.
“Personally I have not experienced any negative reactions just because I happen to be a Trump appointee because I do believe if you know my record, you know who I am and what is important to me,” said Foley.
Foley insists her office can handle the immigration cases, and still crack down on child exploitation, public corruption, and efforts to steal SNAP benefits.
“We have not received any evidence that unconstitutional targeting or arrests are being made in Massachusetts,” said Foley. “If they are, and the facts support those allegations, we will investigate it and prosecute it.”
Foley said last year her office had to answer 850 habeus corpus petitions as immigrants filed civil complaints in court saying they have been illegally detained. There have been more this year, as ICE makes more arrests.
“There was a surge in Maine and all of those cases ended up coming here, we got over 100 petitions from the Maine surge,” she said.
Foley also said her office is hiring because dozens of her prosecutors have either quit, retired, or left the office the last year. She said she does not think it’s because of President Trump or anything she has said or done.
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