BOSTON – Boston Mayor Michelle Wu called for the resignation of Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson after she was arrested on Friday for corruption charges.
The mayor says there is a legal process that needs to play out, but that she believes the councilor should step aside for the sake of the credibility of the Boston City Council.
“I think we’re all just learning and seeing what’s unfolding as the allegations are coming out and we’ll continue to follow how the facts unfold,” Wu said.
“The charges are serious enough that I believe it is of the nature that is going to undermine the ability for the public to trust and have effective representation. I think I made my views clear on that,” Wu said.
Wu says she has not spoken to Fernandes Anderson directly since her court appearance. Wu said she plans to work with Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune and the council as a whole to move things forward.
“We have to hold ourselves to the highest standards in particular at the city level when the responsibilities under our charge are the ones that impact people’s lives the most,” Wu said.
Wu released a statement on Friday saying, “But the serious nature of these charges undermine the public trust and will prevent her from effectively serving the city. I urge Councilor Fernandes Anderson to resign.”
Councilor Fernandes Anderson was arrested on Friday morning and charged with wire fraud, theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, and forfeiture allegations, according to an indictment.
Fernandes Anderson is accused of taking a $7,000 kickback in a pre-arranged deal with a staff member who she was related to, authorities said. It happened in 2023 after she hired the relative in 2022, the indictment said.
The relative, identified as “Staff Member A” in the indictment, was hired with a salary of $65,000 a year and allegedly received a $13,000 bonus in May of 2023. Staff Member A later gave Fernandes Anderson $7,000 of that bonus in a Boston City Hall bathroom on June 9, 2023, the indictment said.
The indictment said that the staff member was not an immediate family member. Fernandes Anderson is also accused of lying to the city by hiding the fact that the staff member was related to her.
She faces up to 20 years in prison for the wire fraud charges and up to 10 years in prison for the theft charge. She was released by the judge on a number of conditions including that she stays in Massachusetts and surrenders her passport.
Tania Fernandes Anderson is a 45-year-old Boston City Councilor who lives in Dorchester. She represents District 7 in Boston, which includes Dorchester, Fenway, Roxbury, and parts of the South End. She was elected to her first two-year term in November of 2021 and was re-elected in 2023.
This is not the first time Fernandes Anderson was accused of hiring a family member. She hired her sister as director of constituent services shortly after she was elected in 2021. She gave her sister a $65,000 salary before raising it to $70,000 and giving her a $7,000 bonus in 2022. She later hired her son in June 2022 as her office manager, making $52,000 a year. A few weeks later, she gave him an $18,000 raise.
She was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine by the state ethics committee after she admitted that she had hired her son and sister to her staff. The committee said that her hiring her family member violated conflict of interest laws.
Investigators said that she was facing financial difficulty in mid-2023.
“When faced with financial hardship and that State Ethics Commission $5,000 sanction, Ms. Fernandes Anderson chose to violate her fiduciary duty and defraud the city of Boston, the indictment alleges, rather than find a legal means to pay off that debt,” U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy said.
BOSTON (WHDH) – Police are investigating a shooting in Downtown Crossing that occurred Thursday night.
Officials said the shooting occurred around 10:30 p.m. near Tremont and Temple Streets.
When officers arrived on scene, they found a man with a gunshot wound; he is expected to survive.
Police have not said if any arrests have been made.
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An East Boston father is suing ICE, alleging immigration agents unlawfully stopped, arrested, and detained him because of his race and national origin despite having his legal status, his lawyers said.
Lawyers for Civil Rights filed the lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Jose Pineda, a 62-year-old Salvadoran immigrant who has lived in the U.S. for more than three decades and is authorized to remain and work through humanitarian relief, the nonprofit legal organization said in a press release.
The suit is seeking damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, assault, and severe emotional distress.
“I came to the United States to escape the civil war that devastated El Salvador. I worked hard, started a family, and built a life here,” said Pineda, who works as a landscaper and lives with his wife and 13-year-old daughter. “I never expected to feel that kind of fear again, much less in the United States.”
According to the 30-page complaint, written by LCR senior attorneys Victoria Miranda and Mirian Albert, Pineda has been a recipient of Temporary Protected Status, which allows certain foreign nationals from designated countries to live and work legally in the U.S.
Pineda also had a pending asylum petition and had been granted a T visa, which provides immigration protections to trafficking victims, the complaint states.
“We will not stand idly by as ICE wreaks havoc on immigrant families. Through racial profiling, ICE agents are carrying out an unquestionably discriminatory agenda,” Miranda said in the release. “The law exists to protect people like Mr. Pineda, and it must be enforced against ICE.”
The lawsuit stems from a May 2025 encounter in Weymouth, where Pineda was driving a landscaping truck to a job site when agents in unmarked ICE vehicles surrounded him, according to the complaint.
“The aggressive nature of the questioning made it clear to Mr. Pineda that he was not being judged based on any evidence of unlawful conduct, but rather on his identity, race, ethnicity, and/or national origin,” Pineda’s attorneys wrote.
The lawsuit alleges ICE officers then “forcibly” handcuffed and shackled Pineda before taking him to the agency’s field office in Burlington.
Officers searched Pineda’s belongings during the stop and again at the field office, allegedly confiscating $600 in cash that he intended to use to pay his family’s rent. The money has not been returned, according to the complaint.
Pineda spent two days in ICE custody under what the lawsuit describes as “cruel and inhumane conditions.”
“After what ICE did to me, and after everything my family has endured, I don’t know if I will ever truly feel safe again,” Pineda said.
According to the complaint, he was held in severely overcrowded cells containing more than 40 people — at times as many as 60 — leaving little room to sit and forcing him to remain standing for much of his detention. Detainees also allegedly shared a single toilet and sink without soap or toilet paper and were not provided toothbrushes, clean clothes, or showers.
Fluorescent lights remained on around the clock, making it difficult to sleep, while temperatures became “extremely cold” overnight and some detainees received only aluminum blanekts for warmth, the complaint states.
Pineda was given only a two-minute phone call during his detention and received two bottles of water each day, along with “inadequate and limited” food and water, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Pineda has suffered devastating and ongoing physical and emotional harm that has impacted all aspects of his life,” his attorneys wrote. “Mr. Pineda brings this action to seek accountability for these violent and traumatizing tortious acts of the ICE officers and to address the harms inflicted upon him.”
According to LCR, Pineda was released following advocacy by Centro Presente, a Massachusetts immigrant rights organization.
After his release, ICE initiated removal proceedings against him depsite his humanitarian protections, the organization said. Those proceedings were ultimately dismissed.
“ICE targeted Mr. Pineda based on nothing more than his perceived national origin and the nature of his work,” Albert said in the press release. “Our laws prohibit this kind of arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement. Through this lawsuit, we seek to hold the federal government accountable for the violence and harm inflicted on Mr. Pineda.”
ICE referred questions about the lawsuit to the Department of Homeland Security. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.
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BOSTON (WHDH) – A pedestrian was hit and killed in Roxbury Thursday morning.
The collision occurred just before 8:20 a.m. on Tremont Street.
Police said Tremont Street was closed in both directions between Brigham Circle and Roxbury Crossing.
This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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