Officials in Massachusetts Sanctuary County Whine About ICE Operations

Officials in the sanctuary county of Plymouth, Massachusetts, complained about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducting targeted enforcement operations without communicating in advance. Their complaints follow a video by a local resident who appeared to interfere with the ICE officers while videoing their activities.

A video shot by Plymouth resident Lori Fitzpatrick and later published on social media shows ICE officers conducting a targeted enforcement operation. Fitzpatrick walks up on one agent and demands to know what they are doing. She later appears to block the vehicle of another officer, who is forced to activate his lights and siren to get her to move.

WCVB interviewed the Plymouth bystander and others about the operation. “I live in this community, this is very concerning to me,” Fitzpatrick told the local ABC affiliate. “I think that as citizens of Plymouth, we need to know what’s happening in our community.”

The video shows Fitzpatrick approaching one officer, asking, “Can I ask the nature of this?” The officer responds, “Don’t worry about it.”

She continues to press, saying, “I am worried about it.”

At that point, the officer advises her not to approach him and warns that she could be arrested for interfering with the operation. A second officer approached Fitzpatrick and ordered her to back off and move to the other side of the street.

“This is illegal, what’s happening,” she exclaims while crossing the road. “Not in our community.”

She then approaches a third officer as he enters an SUV. She steps in front of the vehicle in an apparent attempt to block his departure.

“I’m getting your license plate,” she says as the officer activates his emergency lights.

“Get out of the road,” an officer orders as the vehicle attempts to depart. The officer then activates the emergency siren, and she steps onto the sidewalk.

Fitzpatrick posted two news articles that arose from her video confrontation with ICE on her Healing Vibrations Reiki and Sound Healing Facebook page.

Plymouth County and the State of Massachusetts are sanctuary jurisdictions as defined by ICE. These are jurisdictions that “are deliberately and shamefully obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration laws endangering American communities. Sanctuary cities protect dangerous criminal aliens from facing consequences and put law enforcement in peril,” ICE officials state.

Despite this, Plymouth Town Manager Derek Brindisi complained that local officials were not notified of the ICE operation, the ABC station reported.

“It would just be better if these federal agents opened the lines of communication,” said Brindisi. “We just want to know if an operation is conducted, when we do get phone calls, we can determine whether that is the real operation or someone suggesting they’re an ICE agent for bad purposes.”

However, sanctuary jurisdictions regularly refuse to communicate with ICE to report criminal aliens in their custody. This puts ICE officers and the community at risk as officers are forced to make arrests on the street instead of the controlled environment of a jail facility, ICE officials previously told Breitbart Texas.

“This is unacceptable behavior that puts all law enforcement personnel and residents at risk,” Kevin Canty, a member of the Plymouth Select Board told Boston25News. “ICE should be ashamed of themselves.”

“By failing to extend that minimum courtesy to our Police Department, ICE created a situation where our officers may have responded to calls from residents that masked individuals with guns were taking away their neighbors without having any idea those individuals were federal law enforcement and not criminals.”

The video shows that the ICE officers were in uniform, displaying their badges and law enforcement designation.

Canty acknowledged that it is unlawful for anyone to impede or obstruct ICE officers performing their duties.

FOX News reported that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers deployed more than a dozen teams in targeted enforcement operations in Massachusetts this week. One of the raids led to the arrest of a previously deported child rapist who was living near a playground.

FOX News’s Bill Melugin reported:

ICE Boston tells us local anti-ICE activists have been interfering with their operations daily. Yesterday alone, in East Boston, ICE said one of their teams arrested a criminal alien and put him in cuffs, when a group of activists grabbed him and tried to pull him into their car. Separately, in another incident yesterday, ICE was surveilling an alien murderer’s home when a crowd surrounded them and blew their cover, forcing them to pull off of the target.