BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Mayor Marty Walsh says it's not clear what the Trump Administration will order Border Patrol officers to do once they are deployed to several U.S. cities, including Boston.
"It's unclear exactly what the direction from Washington is to these agents," Mayor Walsh told WBZ NewsRadio. "I have no idea. They have not contacted us."
Boston is one of the ten so-called sanctuary cities where elite tactical Border Patrol units will be sent between February and May. According to the Trump Administration, those officers will work with local ICE agents to "enhance integrity of the immigration system."
After the Trump Administration announced last week that it would be deploying the agents to Boston, Mayor Walsh called the policies "counterproductive" and "harmful."
Typically, Customs and Border Patrol Agents detain people at the border, or at other ports of entry. ICE agents conduct immigration arrests in the interior of the country.
The elite tactical CBP units that are being deployed to ten major U.S. cities are trained for violent situations like arresting drug smuggler at the border.
"This is like the 4th or 5th time now the Administration has threatened something like this in the United States, nothing has happened," Mayor Walsh said. "We haven't heard anything. It's unclear exactly what they're talking about doing. They were saying they're going after violent criminals. In Boston, if there are violent criminals we will take action. What we won't do is do the work of immigration agents."
Not only is he unsure what the CBP agents will be doing once they get to Boston, Mayor Walsh said he also doesn't agree that they should be relocated.
"Why you'd take agents off the southern border if you're so concerned about immigration into the country... and put them into selected cities around the United States of America, I don't quite understand that rationale at all," Mayor Walsh said.
WBZ NewsRadio's Kevin Coleman (@KevinColemanWBZ) reports:
(Photo: Getty Images)
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