How Boston became a focal point in Trump’s immigration crackdown

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

News

4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Increased immigration enforcement is playing out across the U.S., and Boston is no exception. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been spotted in neighborhoods across the city, and the detainment of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk made headlines across the country.

WBUR reporter Simón Rios, who has extensively covered immigration in Boston, joins Here & Now’s Chris Bentley to explain more.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at Mathworks.com.
0:17.5	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:22.0	I'm coming to Boston. I'm bringing hell with me.
0:25.8	Immigration raids, masked ice agents, Operation Patriot,
0:31.2	Trump's agenda of mass deportation through the eyes of one state, Massachusetts.
0:46.0	Music through the eyes of one state, Massachusetts. This is here and now anytime from NPR and WBUR.
0:50.2	I'm Chris Bentley.
0:54.8	I read a story last night, the Police Commission of Boston.
1:00.0	You said you doubled down on not helping the law enforcement office of ICE.
1:04.9	I'm coming to Boston. I'm bringing hell with me.
1:07.0	That is Tom Homan, President Trump's acting director of immigration and customs enforcement,
1:12.5	or ICE, promising in February that he'd bring hell to Boston.
1:17.9	That took the form of Operation Patriot when a surge of ICE agents arrested nearly 1,500 people
1:25.0	during the month of May.
1:27.0	But immigration agents were using aggressive tactics in Boston before that.
1:31.6	You might remember when masked plainclothes agents arrested 30-year-old Tufts University
1:37.1	student Rumaezza Azturk in March.
1:40.3	She was taken to rural Louisiana and detained for six weeks before she was released by a judge who said Osserk had, quote, a substantial claim of a constitutional violation.
1:51.8	ICE agents have also arrested people as they were heading to and from immigration court hearings about remaining in the country lawfully.
1:59.3	There have been protests through it all.
2:01.7	Come for one.
	...

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