Boston, MA
ICE vs. Boston: Trump's border czar promises ‘we're going back'
Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar who promised to “bring hell” to Boston, announced Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested 370 immigrants in Boston and surrounding areas over the past week, the latest escalation in the ongoing war of words between federal officials and political leaders in Boston and Massachusetts.
In a social media post announcing the arrests, Homan singled out Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey for criticism, saying they are standing in the way of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport criminals who are in the country illegally.
Here’s a closer look at everything that led up to the events of this week:
Congress announces investigation into Boston’s ‘sanctuary city’ status, calls Wu to testify
Within a week of Trump’s inauguration, a U.S. congressional committee announced that it was investigating the sanctuary city policies of Boston and three other cities, inviting their mayors to testify at a hearing in Washington, D.C.
Boston is one of several sanctuary cities in Massachusetts, under a local policy that dates back over a decade. Wu defended it after Trump’s re-election after he campaigned on the promise of an immigration crackdown.
Mayor Michelle Wu was invited to testify to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at a February hearing on the immigration policy
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Homan sounds off at CPAC
Homan teed off against Boston’s police commissioner in a February speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying there were at least nine accused “child rapists” in jail who local authorities wouldn’t turn over to ICE. He promised to come to Boston and “bring hell with him.”
That came after Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said in an interview that police didn’t have authority to enforce federal immigration laws or hand over people just because they’re in the country illegally — their immigration status isn’t “relevant to public safety,” he said.
The Boston Trust Act, updated in 2018, allows police to cooperate with ICE on “significant public safety, such as human trafficking, child exploitation, drug and weapons trafficking, and cybercrimes, while refraining from involvement in civil immigration enforcement.”
The city also must follow a 2017 ruling by the state’s highest court, which forbids Massachusetts authorities from holding a person otherwise entitled to release from custody based solely on a federal request.
In response, Wu said it was “clueless” and “insulting” for Homan to attack the commissioner, and that she wants Boston be a welcoming place for immigrants. Healey called Homan’s comments “unproductive” and ”not how you engage as a member of law enforcement.”
Tom Homan, the White House border czar, criticized Boston and its police commissioner in remarks at CPAC Saturday.
Mayor Wu testifies before Congress
On March 5, Wu and three other Democratic mayors testified before Congress about their so-called sanctuary city policies, with Republican committee members accusing them of endangering Americans and threatening to prosecute local officials.
The comments came in an often fiery hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where Republicans said the mayors were undermining President Donald Trump’s immigration and mass deportation efforts.
Republicans repeatedly highlighted a handful of brutal crimes committed by immigrants who crossed illegally into the U.S., with Rep. James Comer opening the hearings by saying the policies “only create sanctuary for criminals.”
But the Democratic mayors, including Wu, defended their policies as legal, even as they seemed to carefully avoid using the term “sanctuary.”
“I spoke with pastors whose pews are half-empty on Sundays,” said Wu, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan. “Doctors whose patients are missing appointments, teachers whose students aren’t coming to class, neighbors afraid to report crimes in their communities, and victims of violence who won’t call the police.
“This federal administration is making hard-working, taxpaying, God-fearing residents afraid to live their lives.”
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu pushed back against Republican lawmakers during a hearing on sanctuary cities while Bostonians on both sides of the argument sounded off at City Hall Plaza.
Wu doubles down during State of the City Address
In her State of the City Address last week, Wu doubled down on her testimony before Congress.
“Two weeks ago, I went down to D.C. because Congress had some questions about how we do things here in Boston. Now it might have been my voice speaking into the microphone that day, but it was 700,000 voices that gave Congress their answer: This is our city,” Wu said in her speech. “No one tells Boston how to take care of our own. Not kings, and not presidents who think they are kings. Boston was born facing down bullies.”
She also directly responded to Homan’s proclamation that he was “bringing hell” to Boston.
“Boston is the target in this fight for our future because we are the cradle of democracy, pioneers of the public good, the stewards and keepers of the American dream. We were built on the values this federal administration seeks to tear down,” Wu said. “But for 395 years, come high water or hell — no matter who threatens to bring it — Boston has stood up for the people we love and the country we built, and we’re not stopping now.”
Mayor Michelle Wu gave her third State of the City Address Wednesday night.
Border czar announces arrests of 370 Boston area immigrants
Federal immigration and law enforcement officials conducted a six-day “enhanced targeted enforcement operation focusing on transnational organized crime, gangs, and egregious illegal alien offenders” in Massachusetts over the last week, announcing Monday the apprehension of 370 individuals.
ICE said 205 of the people arrested during the March 18-23 focus on Massachusetts “had significant criminal convictions or charges,” including six foreign fugitives currently facing charges or convictions for murder, drug trafficking, organized crime, and money laundering.
They said arrests were made in Boston, Marlborough, Worcester, Salem, Milford, Lowell, Medford, Wakefield, New Bedford, Pittsfield, and West Yarmouth.
Federal officials said they also seized 44 kilograms of methamphetamine, five kilograms of fentanyl, just more than one kilogram of cocaine, three firearms and ammunition from “illegal alien offenders.”
“These officers and agents made the neighborhoods of Boston and Massachusetts much safer. They risked their own safety by arresting these criminals on the street, rather than a jail. Governor Healey and Mayor Wu should be ashamed of supporting sanctuary policies,” Homan said in a social media post. “Releasing public safety threats back into the public, rather than working with ICE at the jails, puts the public at great risk.
Homan said he visited Boston at the start of the sweep last Tuesday. The FBI on Monday shared photos of the command center it established to support the federal immigration enforcement effort, including pictures from Homan’s visit.
Border czar Tom Homan says 370 immigrants were arrested during a 5-day operation in Boston and surrounding communities.
Healey, Wu respond to ICE raids
Asked Monday about Homan’s comments, Healey said she hadn’t seen what Homan said, but reiterated comments she’s made recently, including an interview last week with NBC10 Boston.
“We are not a sanctuary state and we continue to cooperate with local, state and federal law enforcement,” Healey said, adding, “I’m not sure what the director’s referring to but it’s certainly always been our position that those who do things that are crimes, that people who are violent in communities, should be held accountable and taken off the streets.”
A spokesperson for Wu’s office released a statement in response to the ICE raids, urging federal authorities to release more details about those arrested.
“Boston is the safest major city in the country, and we partner with all levels of law enforcement to prevent crime and hold perpetrators accountable. Given that we have no information on these arrests, we cannot confirm how many took place within Boston police jurisdiction or in other cities, and we cannot confirm whether every individual was lawfully detained. We strongly urge ICE to release information on all the individuals detained in order to ensure transparency.”
Wu is scheduled to appear on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” on Tuesday night, where she could be asked to comment further on the situation.
Homan says feds will return to Boston
Border czar Homan appeared on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” program on Tuesday morning to talk about the recent ICE operation in Boston, and said federal agents will be returning to the city soon.
“We’re keeping President Trump’s promise. President Trump promised we’re going to secure the border, and he promised we’re going to prioritize public safety threats, national safety threats.”
“Boston, I said at CPAC they were a sanctuary state, and we’re going to come despite theri santuary status, we’re going to bring agents there and take these worst of the worst off the streets.”
Now that they’re in custody, he said “each and every one of them” will be deported.
“Mayor Wu in Boston said I was lying under oath, I was lying about her city. Well, we went to that city, went to the surrounding counties around the city, and look what we did in five days,” Homan added. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re not done. We’re going back, as I said. We’re going to keep going back.”
Jackets shook off a sluggish start to dispose of Boston College, 65-53.
Georgia Tech guard Chas Kelley III finishes a layup past Boston College’s Marko Radunovic on Saturday, Jan. 3 at McCamish Pavilion. (Danny Karnik/Georgia Tech Athletics)
Trailing late in the second half Saturday at McCamish Pavilion, Georgia Tech needed a spark. Cole Kirouac delivered.
The 7-foot freshman found himself unguarded inside the arc on the left side of the court. Without hesitation he bolted toward the rim, took flight and slammed home the ball with two hands to tie the score at 46 with seven minutes left on the clock.
Kirouac’s dunk brought many of the 5,978 to their feet and changed the energy in the building while the Yellow Jackets threatened to lose to the worst team in the ACC. Instead, Tech took the lead shortly after Kirouac’s play and never trailed again in a 65-53 victory.
“Originally, it was just supposed to be a handoff. I saw my man sagging off. I just took one dribble, went up and dunked it,” Kirouac said. “I feel like I was pretty tired in that moment. I feel like that energized me a lot. I think we had energy as a team, but I feel like it probably boosted it a little bit.”
Said Tech coach Damon Stoudamire: “That was a heck of a dunk he had. That ignited us, ignited the crowd. Proud of him and happy for him.”
Saturday’s victory was the 10th of the season for Tech — all 10 have come at home and all 10 have come against opponents which reside in Quadrant 4 of the NCAA’s NET rankings. Per that metric, Boston College was the ACC’s lowest-ranked team at No. 179 going into Saturday.
But the Jackets (10-5, 1-1 ACC), the ACC’s second-worst team in the NET, found themselves in a dogfight for much of the afternoon despite leading by 10 late in the first half. The Eagles (7-7, 0-1 ACC) had momentum on their side and led by four with 9:14 to play before wilting at the end.
Tech guard Lamar Washington flirted with a triple-double by finishing with 17 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. Kowacie Reeves scored 16 and Baye Ndongo had 10 points and eight boards.
Twenty of Tech’s 65 points came from the free-throw line. The Jackets also had 23 fast break points — Boston College had none.
“We’re a good team,” Washington said. “When we play together and we play with confidence and we play how we’re supposed to play, we can — I feel like we can beat anybody in the nation.”
Tech was sluggish and sloppy at the outset, suffering through a field goal drought of 6:04 while missing nine of its first 10 shots. But a Ndongo layup followed by a Kam Craft 3 from the right corner tied the game at 11-all a little less than eight minutes into the fight.
The Jackets began to get a feel for things offensively from there and took their first lead on a Jaeden Mustaf layup at 13-12. Akai Fleming’s powerful finish from the right block 3 1/2 minutes later put the home team ahead 19-15.
Tech had six assists on its first seven made shots at that point.
Fleming’s score began an 10-2 Tech run that also included a Fleming dunk and two Fleming free throws that upped the lead to 27-17.
But the Jackets wouldn’t score the rest of the half and had to settle for a 27-24 lead at the break. The Eagles, despite shooting 9 of 34 from the floor, ended the period on a 7-0 run to close the gap.
“I was actually disappointed the last three minutes of the first half because BC, they’ve played a lot of games where they just rock you to sleep,” Stoudamire said. “You’ll feel like you’re in control of the game and then all of a sudden you lose a rhythm offensively, and then they start scoring some buckets and they hit a bank-shot 3 and you just have all kind of things start happening, and that’s when the game turned. The momentum of the game, it shifted. And we couldn’t find it back offensively.”
A back-and-forth first eight minutes of the second half saw Boston College finally tie the game at 36 before Tech squeaked ahead by four thanks to two Washington free throws and a Reeves layup.
The Eagles responded with a 7-0 run and took the lead on a Donald Hand Jr. 3, and then went up 43-40 on Chase Forte’s layup at the 10:33 mark. Boden Kapke’s putback after a missed free throw gave BC a 46-42 edge 64 seconds later.
That was the last little glimmer of hope the visitors had.
“We couldn’t have won games like this last year,” Stoudamire said. “The way I look at everything that’s happening, I think sometimes people get bent out of shape when you play teams and you don’t beat ‘em by how many points they want you to win by or different things of that nature. We went to Duke and we lost by six. We come back (Saturday) and it was kind of a grimy game.
“But we’ve been playing close games, so we’re seasoned in these games. Doesn’t matter who you play, you’re seasoned in ‘em, and I think that what you’ve seen. You didn’t see no panic with our guys coming down the stretch.”
Hand and Kapke both scored 13 for BC, which shot 18 of 66 from the field and 4 of 29 from long range.
Tech returns to action at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Syracuse (9-5, 0-1) at McCamish Pavilion.
Chad Bishop is a Georgia Tech sports reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
There was clutch fourth-quarter defense, inspiring two-way play from Toumani Camara and another stat-stuffing performance by Deni Avdija.
But perhaps no one or no thing meant more to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday than Donovan Clingan.
The starting center’s combination of defense, emotion and dominance powered the Blazers to a 114-108 win over the Boston Celtics before 17,949 at the Moda Center.
“I think he was our best defensive player,” Blazers acting coach Tiago Splitter said of Clingan. “Just his presence, reading every situation, talking, leading. He was a big part of our win.”
Clingan finished with 18 points and 18 rebounds, recording his ninth double-double of the season, as the Blazers (13-19) ended a three-game losing streak. He was suffocating early, producing 11 points and eight rebounds in the first quarter. He was clutch late, adding five points and six rebounds in the fourth. And he was a mountain of energy and intensity throughout.
He stared down Celtics players after monster two-handed dunks. He came oh-so-close to drawing a technical foul in the second half, when he towered over a Boston player after finishing a dunk. And he punctuated big shots with screams to the rafters and raised arms.
The Blazers seemed to feed off his energy and emotion, riding it all the way a much-needed win.
“He’s one of those dudes that scores (and) looks at the opponent,” Splitter said. “He tries to bring some juice every time he (has) a good play or a block or something like that, just to pass (it along) to the rest of the guys, the energy, the belief that he has. He’s very important for our defense, for our offense, for the whole locker room’s energy. He’s one of those guys.”
Of course, it took more than Clingan for the shorthanded Blazers to topple the Celtics (19-12).
Camara finished with 20 points, made four of five three-pointers in the second half and played imposing defense. Avdija overcame a shaky first half that included five turnovers to produce 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. Shaedon Sharpe added 26 points and five rebounds and Caleb Love scored 18 points off the bench, which included 10 crucial points in the fourth quarter.
Boston had control for most of the first half and built a 10-point lead in the third quarter, thanks in large part to a breathtaking performance by Jaylen Brown, who torched the Blazers with 27 points on 11-for-16 shooting before halftime.
But Splitter tweaked his defense to feature a swarm of double teams and blitzes at the Celtics’ All-Star forward, and it helped fuel a second-half turnaround.
Portland opened the third quarter by outscoring Boston 12-2 and Brown managed just 10 points on 3-for-8 shooting after halftime.
Still, like most of the Blazers’ games this season, the outcome came down to clutch time. And this time, the Blazers’ defense was the difference.
Portland held Boston to three points over the final two minutes, 41 seconds of the game, allowing just one field goal — a Derrick White three-pointer with 43.0 seconds left. Otherwise, the Blazers’ defense was stifling, forcing two missed shots and four turnovers, including two on the Celtics’ final two possessions of the game. The Celtics scored just 45 points in the second half, including 23 in the pivotal fourth quarter.
“I think Sidy (Cissoko) brought energy,” Splitter said. “Toumani always (does). D.C. was protecting the rim, his rebounding was huge. But as a group, the energy was there. We were fighting every screen. They have great players that can shoot the ball. They’re one of the best shooting teams in the league. So (we) had to fight all those screens, getting over or under, and (we) did a good job navigating those positions.”
Top performers
Avdija finished with 20 or more points for the 26th time this season and recorded double-digits in assists for the fifth time this season.
Brown finished with 37 points, seven rebounds and four assists for the Celtics, who had won four in a row and nine of 11.
A pair of reunions
Anfernee Simons returned to the Moda Center for the first time as a visitor, finishing with 13 points, three rebounds, two steals and one assist in 19 minutes.
Simons, who spent his first seven seasons with the Blazers, was traded to the Celtics in the offseason in a move that brought Jrue Holiday to Portland. Simons came off the bench for Boston on Sunday and swished his first shot — a three — 17 seconds later. But his shot was mostly cold the rest of the night as Simons made just 4 of 11 field goals, including 2 of 6 threes.
Meanwhile, Payton Pritchard, who went to West Linn High School and played for the Oregon Ducks, recorded nine points, five assists, five rebounds and two steals in 38 minutes.
Meanwhile, Payton Pritchard, who went to West Linn High School and played for the Oregon Ducks, recorded nine points, five assists, five rebounds and two steals in 38 minutes.
Next up
The Blazers host the Dallas Mavericks and No. 1 overall NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg Monday night at 7:30 at the Moda Center.
With the NBA trade deadline looming on February 5, many people are wondering how the Boston Celtics will approach things.
The Celtics have some solid trade chips in guys like Anfernee Simons and Sam Hauser. PBO Brad Stevens has communicated that he’s open to pretty much any scenario, whether that’s buying, selling, or staying put.
It’ll all depend on what kinds of offers land on Brad’s desk.
If Boston were to make a move, you’d have to assume it would be one that strengthens the front court. Neemias Queta has been awesome as the starting center this year, but that doesn’t mean that the Celtics couldn’t use more depth at the position.
This is the line of though that probably had NBA analyst Jake Weinbach linking the Celtics to Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford in trade buzz.
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Gafford’s 2025-26 campaign with the Mavs has been affected by an ankle injury that disrupted his early momentum and restricted his playing time after returning. In 22 games (14 starts), Gafford has averaged 7.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.0 assist, and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 62 percent from the field.
In the Mavericks’ 113-107 defeat of the Sacramento Kings on December 27, Gafford stepped into the starting lineup for the injured Anthony Davis, delivering 11 points, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block in 23 minutes.
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He inked a three-year, $54 million extension in July, setting expectations for expanded contributions in Dallas.
Gafford entered the NBA as the Chicago Bulls’ second-round pick (38th overall) in 2019. He debuted modestly before moving to the Washington Wizards in 2021, where he developed into a reliable starter. Traded to Dallas in February 2024, he excelled in 2023-24, topping the league in field goal percentage at 72.5 percent. Across 401 career games, he maintains 9.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.5 blocks averages on 70.5 percent shooting.
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