Boston Mayor Michelle Wu filed a federal records request to identify private property owners who respond to Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests for parking spaces, prompting the Department of Homeland Security to accuse her of intimidating law-abiding citizens who cooperate with federal law enforcement.
City Targets Private Business Owners
After Boston banned ICE vehicles from city-owned parking lots, the federal agency issued a notice seeking to rent 249 contiguous parking spaces in the city for five years. Wu responded with an open letter to all parking garage and lot owners throughout Boston, urging them to reject any ICE proposals. The same day, her administration submitted a Freedom of Information Act request demanding ICE disclose which local businesses responded to the parking space solicitation. Wu promised property owners in her letter that the city would keep them updated as officials push for a response.
The Department of Homeland Security fired back on social media, calling Wu’s actions “unhinged” and accusing her of “hunting down private property owners and threatening them for working with ICE.” Federal officials noted that Wu knows she lacks authority to block ICE from using private property, forcing her to intimidate business owners instead. DHS added that the FOIA request itself proves Wu admits she cannot legally prevent federal agents from utilizing private facilities.
Executive Orders and Economic Warnings
Wu claimed in her letter that ICE procuring parking resources would constitute an “unprovoked and unwarranted escalation, creating potentially significant risks to public safety and halting economic activity across our entire region.” She boasted about joining six other Greater Boston cities in signing executive orders prohibiting ICE from staging operations on municipal property. Wu asked private property owners to “reject any proposition by ICE to facilitate an attack on the people of Boston.”
The Boston City Council adopted an emergency resolution earlier this month urging the city to explore all avenues to oppose proposed ICE parking leases in downtown Boston. A spokesperson for Wu defended the mayor’s position, stating that violent ICE surges make communities less safe and that previous operations caused restaurants and businesses to close, decimating economic activity.
Federal Pushback Intensifies
DHS criticized Wu as a “pro-criminal illegal alien politician” and defended the right of private citizens to allow federal law enforcement onto their own property free from mayoral threats and coercion. The agency referenced Wu’s previous comparison of ICE agents to neo-Nazi groups, highlighting what it characterized as her hostility toward immigration enforcement. ICE issued similar parking space requests in 13 other cities nationwide as part of surge operations targeting criminal illegal aliens, according to federal officials.