In the heart of Boston and across the United States, a new chapter in immigration enforcement is unfolding with a scale and intensity not seen in years. On September 18, 2025, President Donald Trump’s administration accelerated its crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, launching a series of high-profile operations that have sent shockwaves through immigrant communities, rattled local economies, and reverberated across international borders.
According to the Associated Press, immigrants in Metro Boston are now being detained not only while going to work, but also outside courthouses and in the parking lots of local stores. The operation, dubbed "Patriot 2.0," follows a May sweep that saw nearly 1,500 immigrants detained in Massachusetts alone. The presence of unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles has become a common—and deeply unsettling—sight in immigrant neighborhoods. Agents have reportedly targeted work vans, and in one instance, a video captured the arrest of three landscapers at Saugus Town Hall after officers smashed their truck window.
The impact is palpable. Families are staying indoors, afraid that even the most mundane daily tasks—like dropping children off at school or buying groceries—could lead to detainment. The city of Everett, just north of Boston, even canceled its annual Hispanic Heritage Month festival, with the mayor stating it wouldn’t be appropriate to celebrate when community members might not feel safe attending.
While some public officials, such as New Hampshire Governor Kelly Ayotte, have praised the crackdown—Ayotte signed legislation this year banning sanctuary city policies and vowed not to let New Hampshire "go the way of Massachusetts"—others are sounding the alarm. Boston's Mayor Michelle Wu, who has become a frequent target for her defense of sanctuary policies, accused the Trump administration of "attacking cities to hide his administration’s failures." In a dramatic escalation, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Wu, the city of Boston, and its police department on September 4, 2025, alleging that sanctuary city policies are interfering with federal immigration enforcement.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the operation, stating in a press release that the Boston surge would focus on "the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens" and that "sanctuary policies like those pushed by Mayor Wu not only attract and harbor criminals but protect them at the peril of law-abiding American citizens." The press release highlighted the arrest of seven individuals, including a 38-year-old Guatemalan man previously charged with assault. Yet ICE has not provided details on the total number of immigrants detained since the latest operation began.
The sweep has extended far beyond city limits. ICE has contracts to detain people at multiple correctional facilities across New England, including county jails, the federal prison in Berlin, New Hampshire, and a privately operated prison in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Volunteers monitoring detainee flights from New Hampshire’s Portsmouth International Airport at Pease have documented the transfer of more than 300 individuals since early August, with at least five flights per week moving detainees from states including New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts. All have been shackled during transport, according to protest organizers like David Holt, who has led demonstrations at Pease and the ICE office in Burlington, where three protesters were arrested for trespassing.
Advocates report a surge in fear and anxiety among immigrants. The Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts has ramped up its hotline services, now offering support in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, and Haitian Creole. They’ve even called for volunteers fluent in Cape Verdean Kriolu, Nepali, and Vietnamese to help track ICE activity. Kevin Lam, co-executive director of the Asian American Resource Workshop, told the Associated Press that his organization has seen a "spike" in ICE activity, including the detention of five Vietnamese residents from a Boston neighborhood last week. Lam noted that while fear is widespread, many immigrants continue to work—often because they are the primary breadwinners. "Many of them are like, 'Yeah, it is a risk every day when I step out, but I need to work to be able to provide for my family,'" he said.
The sweep has not been limited to those with criminal records. Republican Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said she is "100% supportive" of ICE’s latest operation, promising to prosecute immigrants without legal status who commit crimes. But advocates argue that noncriminals, including asylum-seekers and those with pending legal claims, have been swept up in what ICE calls "collateral arrests." Alexandra Peredo Carroll, director of legal education and advocacy at the Mabel Center for Immigrant Justice, told the Associated Press, "I think you’re going to see more and more how families are going to be torn apart, how individuals with no criminal history, with pending forms of relief, pending applications are just going to be rounded up."
The consequences of these policies are not confined to the United States. North of the border, Canada is experiencing a dramatic spike in asylum-seekers crossing at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing between New York and Quebec. Since July 1, 2025, more than 5,500 asylum claims have been filed at this crossing—a staggering 263% increase over the same period last year, according to the Canada Border Services Agency. The surge is directly linked to President Trump’s intensified ICE raids and immigration enforcement, as reported by multiple outlets including The Independent. The Canadian government has also noted a sharp increase in refugee claims by U.S. citizens themselves, with 245 claims in the first half of 2025 compared to 204 in all of 2024, reflecting mounting concerns about safety and rights in the U.S.
The Trump administration’s hardline approach has not been limited to urban centers. On September 4, 2025, federal, state, and local officers conducted the largest single-site immigration worksite raid in U.S. history at the Hyundai-LG electric vehicle battery plant construction site in southeast Georgia. According to CNN and Mother Jones, the operation resulted in 475 arrests, including more than 300 South Korean nationals and 23 Mexicans. Most were transferred to the Folkston ICE Processing Center, over 100 miles away. The South Korean government intervened to negotiate the release and return of its citizens, amid reports of possible human rights abuses. President Trump responded by reiterating that foreign workers are "welcome."
Officials argued that the workers had entered unlawfully, overstayed visas, or were unauthorized to work. However, internal government documents obtained by the Guardian revealed that at least one South Korean worker was legally employed with a valid visa. Experts like William D. Lopez, author of the forthcoming book Raiding the Heartland: An American Story of Deportation and Resistance, told Mother Jones that such raids have a devastating impact on local communities—causing separated families, economic collapse, and widespread fear. "People are poorer and people are hungrier after this type of enforcement. It’s often the father who gets picked up," Lopez explained. Community events dwindle, and local economies suffer as people avoid public spaces and stop spending. The trauma, he noted, lingers long after the agents leave.
As the Trump administration vows to continue and even escalate these operations, the effects ripple far beyond those directly detained. From the empty classrooms in rural towns to the record number of asylum claims at the Canadian border, the nation is witnessing a profound transformation in its approach to immigration—one that is leaving families fractured, communities fearful, and international neighbors on edge.
