Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, is criticizing the Boston Globe over a story about a local activist who warns the public when federal officers are nearby so they may avoid them.
On July 4, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston field office released a social media statement in response to the Globe’s recent piece about the impact of President Trump’s deportation campaign on local immigrant communities.
The Boston Globe recently ran a piece praising a local activist’s work. In an attempt to incorporate our director’s comments, ICE reached out to the Globe. In an X post on Friday morning, ERO Boston said, “His quote is below.”
After stating that he believes he represents the best federal officers and agents assigned to one of the most difficult positions in law enforcement, Lyons, who formerly oversaw Boston’s field office, criticized the Globe’s findings.
“Every day, our officers put their lives in danger to protect communities in New England from criminal alien offenders,” Lyons said.
He continued by saying: Publications with clear political agendas frequently hail activists like Lucy Pineda as heroes, but if they were to examine what she and her supporters are doing honestly, they are encouraging people to break the law and, more often than they are willing to acknowledge, they are enabling violent criminals to continue to victimize migrant communities.
Pineda, 52, is an El Salvadorian native and the leader of Latinos Unidos en Massachusetts, a group based in Everett. According to the Globe, the group has 2,500 volunteers and is expanding, patrolling neighborhoods from Everett to Lynn to Worcester.
According to the Globe, their goal is to notify communities about ICE activities and families who may be deported.
Last month, Pineda’s brother, Emilio Neftaly Pineda, an illegal Salvadoran national convicted of domestic violence and battery, restraining order violations, and operating a car while intoxicated, was taken into custody by federal officials in Peabody.
Agents reported at the time of the arrest that the guy was also the subject of two arrest warrants in Massachusetts for failing to show up for his scheduled court appearances on charges of obligatory insurance violation and abandoning the scene of an accident.
We reacted to the initial email asking to include a comment and are working to incorporate it in digital and print for our readers, a Globe representative stated in response to a Herald query. Throughout the story, numerous people were included.
A separate report about Lyons’ answer was also published by the Globe.
More than 1,400 people were arrested by ICE and other federal authorities in May, more than in any other month on record, the report starts. To learn more about the impact of that increase, a group of Globe writers, photographers, and videographers recently canvassed immigrant communities for a week.
It goes on to say that Globe’s requests to participate were not addressed by the Boston regional office of ICE during the reporting process. However, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons gave the Globe a comment on July 4 after reading the published report.
Lucy Pineda is seen conversing with federal authorities in a video that was shared on the Globe’s social media sites on Thursday.
She informs them, “You’re targeting our hardworking community.” Alright? Keep in mind that there is karma. There is karma. Alright? There is karma.
