Markey slams Trump’s brutal immigration enforcement campaign

Letter Text (PDF)

Washington (December 17, 2025) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) today wrote to David Wesling, Boston Acting Field Office Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations, demanding answers about the treatment of people detained in the ICE field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, and the aggressive enforcement tactics ICE has employed in immigrant communities. On December 12, Senator Markey conducted an inspection of the Burlington facility and questioned the field office leadership on the inadequate detention conditions and ICE’s arrest dragnet. Senator Markey continues his oversight because the lives of immigrants in the Commonwealth and across New England hang in the balance.

In the letter, Senator Markey writes, “The experiences of people processed and detained at Burlington are especially concerning in the broader national policy context. The Trump administration’s immigration agenda, which guides ICE’s enforcement philosophy, has embraced an extremist, anti-immigrant ideology that treats vulnerable families as political targets, not human beings deserving of dignity. Across the country — and acutely in Massachusetts — this Administration’s approach has fanned fear, eroded trust in government, and weaponized federal power against long-settled neighbors who contribute to our communities every day. Burlington is not an aberration; it is the predictable result of a national strategy that prioritizes cruelty over community safety.”

Senator Markey lists several cases of ICE detaining people at routine immigration appointments, operating without transparency or accountability, and conducting arrests using dangerous tactics.

Senator Markey continues, “During the enforcement surge in September 2025, reporting indicates that more than half of those arrested had no criminal records or criminal charges. Only 2 percent of those arrested in Massachusetts between September 4 and September 30 had convictions for violent crimes, while 63 percent had no criminal charges at all. The data demonstrates that the public safety justification ICE repeatedly invokes bears no resemblance to the reality on the ground, a reality that becomes painfully clear through the individual stories emerging from our communities.”

Senator Markey concludes, “These incidents reflect an agency operating far beyond acceptable standards, which brings me back to the questions I raised during my visit on December 12. I asked about specific Massachusetts cases of excessive force, ICE’s sweeping operations, and the lack of transparency surrounding arrests and detention practices. I remain deeply concerned about the tactics being used and the impact on Massachusetts communities. Advocates have labeled the degree of terror in communities across the region as unprecedented. Fear has spread so profoundly that when word of an arrest circulates, school attendance drops as families fear their children being detained. Workers are afraid to go to their jobs. Families remain behind locked doors.”

Senator Markey requests answers to the following questions by December 31, 2025:

1. How many individuals has the ICE field office in Burlington processed this calendar year?
2. Is every individual held at the Burlington facility properly recorded in the Online Detainee Locator System?
3. Has the ICE field office in Burlington detained individuals in vulnerable groups overnight, including minors, seniors, pregnant or nursing women, or disabled individuals?
4. What is the process by which detainees can request medical care?
5. I understand from my visit that there is one shower in the facility. Does ICE allow detainees to use this shower if held overnight?
6. What is the field office’s practice regarding access to drinking water?
7. What is the field office’s position regarding the right to counsel for individuals processed and/or detained at the facility?
8. Does the field office currently allow family members and members of the clergy to meet with detainees?
9. What steps is the field office taking to ensure that ICE agents are not engaging in excessive use of force when conducting enforcement operations?
10. How many immigration enforcement actions have taken place near protected, or sensitive, locations in the Commonwealth this year, including at schools, places of worship, courtrooms, hospitals, etc.?
11. How many minors (i.e., individuals under the age of eighteen) has ICE arrested in Massachusetts this calendar year?
12. What guidance have you or your office provided ICE agents regarding how to identify themselves during enforcement operations? Will you commit to instructing your agents not to use masks or other face covering during enforcement actions?

Senator Markey is continuing his efforts to hold the Trump administration accountable for its violations of people’s constitutional rights and its gross weaponization of immigration enforcement.

• On December 12, after his visit to the Burlington ICE facility, Senator Markey held a press conference with immigrant rights leaders at Faneuil Hall to denounce Donald Trump’s racist and xenophobic immigration policies and provide more details on his ongoing oversight work.
• On November 24, Senator Markey wrote to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney S. Scott, urging the agency to immediately cease using a system of license plate readers and predictive algorithms to monitor the movements of individual Americans. CBP is reportedly using the system to “identify and detain people whose travel patterns it deems suspicious.”
• On November 3, after receiving no response to his September 11 letter, Senator Markey wrote to Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, requesting that ICE cease the use of its biometric phone application Mobile Fortify.
• On June 2, Senator Markey demanded the release of his constituent Marcelo Gomes, an 18-year-old Milford High School student who was detained by ICE agents while traveling to volleyball practice.
• On April 22, Senator Markey and Representatives Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and Jim McGovern (MA-02), along with Representative Bennie Thompson (MS-02), Ranking Member of Committee on Homeland Security, and Representative Troy Carter (LA-02) visited the Louisiana ICE facility where Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk was being held, as well as another ICE facility holding Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil.
• Also on April 22, Senator Markey, Representative Pressley, and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, demanding answers about the Trump administration’s concerning practice of detaining individuals, such as Ms. Öztürk, far from their attorneys and communities and in legal environments where their rights are more difficult to defend.

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