… Stephen Miller summoned 50 senior ICE officialsfrom around the country for a bonkers emergency meeting about deportation numbers, according to a new report from the conservative Washington Examiner. One official after the meeting: “They’ve been threatened, told they’re watching their emails and texts and Signals. That’s what is horrible about things right now. It’s a fearful environment. Everybody in leadership is afraid. There’s no morale. Everybody is demoralized.”
… “Miller came in there and eviscerated everyone. ‘You guys aren’t doing a good job. You’re horrible leaders.’ He just ripped into everybody. He had nothing positive to say about anybody, shot morale down. Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at7-Eleven?'”
… One official stood up and told Miller that DHS and the WH said they were only supposed to be focused on migrants who had criminal records: “Miller said, ‘What do you mean you’re only going after criminals?’ Miller got into a little bit of a pissing contest. ‘That’s whatTom Homan says every time he’s on TV: ‘We’re going after criminals,'” the ICE official told Miller.”
… Apparently what they say to the public is not the same as what they are saying internally to senior ICE officials.
… The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that DHS’s controversial list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” for immigrants has been taken down from their website.
… Immigration expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick: “The amateurs running DHS put up a list of ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’ which included county governments which don't exist, misspelled cities, and sheriffs' departments which say they DO fully collaborate with ICE. The list has already been taken down after intense pushback.”
… Reuters reported that Trump’s newFEMA chief David Richardson stunned his own staffers today when he said during a briefing that he had not been aware the country has a hurricane season. Reuters: “The US hurricane season officially began on Sunday and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last week that this year's season is expected to bring as many as 10 hurricanes.”
BORDER LINES — Republicans point to immigration as one of the forces driving the gains they made in state elections last year.
GOP candidates for governor are betting Bay Staters’ frustration over the state’s migrant and family shelter crises will extend to immigration issues more broadly amid a wave of federal immigration action in Massachusetts.
Look at last week: When Gov. Maura Healey criticized ICE after dozens of people were arrested on Martha’s Vineyard last week, both former MBTA executive SLOW ZONE Brian Shortsleeve and TRUMPER Mike Kennealy, the state’s former housing and economic development secretary, used the moment to hit Healey for failing to work with the federal government on immigration.
BRAIN DEAD SLOW ZONE SHORTSLEEVE IS AN UNINFORMED LIAR WHO IGNORES THE NUMBERS OF MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS WHO WERE HOMELESS DUE TO CAPITALIST VULTURES GOBBLING UP RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES! WE KNOW WHAT CAUSE THE HOUSING PROBLEMS - NOTE THAT MASS MAGA GOP INCOMPETENTS HAVE NO SOLUTIONS!
SLOW ZONE Shortsleeve accused Healey of “turning Massachusetts into a migrant magnet, ” while TRUMPER Kennealy LIES said Healey “can’t expect to be included in federal operations while she’s publicly bashing the federal government and attacking ICE.”
And after federal officials announced Monday they had seized 1,500 people in Massachusetts during a flurry of arrests they dubbed “Operation Patriot,” SLOW ZONE Shortsleeve said Healey’s “warped sense of justice has made the commonwealth less affordable and less safe for our people,” and urged the governor to “apologize to every taxpayer and every victim.”
Healey, meanwhile, has taken a more critical tone on the White House’s immigration agenda in recent days, while maintaining she supports the detention of people with criminal backgrounds. The operation on the islands was “disturbing,” she said last week.
“The fear and the uncertainty, the anxiety that is created in these communities, I think, is totally unnecessary,” she said.
On Monday, she called for the release of an undocumented 18-year-old Milford High School student who was detained over the weekend on his way to volleyball practice (Federal officials said Monday the student’s father was the intended target.). Progressives and immigration advocates, however, have called on her to take things a step further and declare ICE “a rogue federal agency operating outside the law.”
A MassInc poll from March found that 13 percent of Massachusetts voters believe immigration is the single biggest issue facing state government (Only housing and cost of living ranked higher.).
But some of the more high-profile ICE detentions — like the student in Milford — have prompted serious backlash locally and among Democratic electeds and advocates that could swing the immigration issue back in Healey’s favor ahead of the 2026 election.
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS .Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Drop me a line: kgarrity@politico.com .
TODAY — Gov. Maura Healey attends the grand opening of Amazon’s robotics fulfillment center at 9:45 a.m. in Charlton. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll speaks at a Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education luncheon at 1:15 p.m. in Boston. Healey and Driscoll testify on the administration’s higher education infrastructure bill at 1:45 p.m. at the State House. Secretary of State Bill Galvin announces upcoming events marking the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Bunker Hill at 11 a.m. in Charlestown. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu speaks at the Legacy Business Award Ceremony at 5:30 p.m. in the South End.
Playbook isn’t just a newsletter — it’s a podcast, too. With new co-hosts who bring unmatched Trump world reporting and analysis, The Playbook Podcast dives deeper into the power plays shaping Washington. Get the insider edge— start listening now .
MONEY MATTERS — GOP gubernatorial hopefulSLOW ZONE Brian Shortsleeve raised $416,027 since entering the governor’s race, his campaign announced Monday. That’s more than the roughly $130,000 his sole declared Republican competitor,TRUMPERMike Kennealy, reported in his first month on the campaign trail and more than the roughly $404,000 Gov. Maura Healey raised in March (her biggest haul since taking office).
MIGRANTS IN MASSACHUSETTS
***ICE GESTAPO MADE AN ALL TOO COMMON MISTAKE...GOT THE WRONG PERSON!****
MASS MAGA GOP NEED TO STOP DEFENDING ICE LAWLESSNESS!
— Emergency order blocks ICE from transferring Milford student out of state by Esteban Bustillos and Sarah Betancourt, GBH News: “A federal judge issued an emergency order Sunday blocking federal immigration authorities from transferring an 18-year-old Milford High School student of Brazilian nationality out of Massachusetts for at least 72 hours, court records show. The order came on the heels of a habeas corpus petition, in which his attorneys challenged the constitutionality of Marcelo Gomes Da Silva’s detention.”
— Amid crackdown fears, Massachusetts. undocumented immigrants seem to be still getting driver’s licenses by Chris Burrell, GBH News: “Massachusetts is still seeing strong demand for driver’s licenses, a trend some policy analysts are linking to undocumented immigrants choosing a path to legal driving that could protect them amid a heightened federal immigration crackdown. Demand for adults’ standard licenses and permits surged two summers ago when a new state law went into effect: Anyone, regardless of immigration status, can get the documents to legally drive in Massachusetts.”
— In East Boston, wives of men arrested by ICE tell their stories by Miriam Wasser, WBUR: “While federal immigration officials touted the nearly 1,500 arrests they made in Massachusetts during May, three women whose husbands had been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement sat in front of a crowded room in an East Boston community center and described — at times through tears — what the experience has been like for their families. The event was part of a community roundtable event convened by Rep. Ayanna Pressley to amplify the faces and stories behind the government's arrest statistics.”
excerpts:
"Just a few blocks from our home, I noticed flashing lights behind us," she said. "I was driving, so I pulled over. Suddenly, several unmarked cars surrounded us; about five officers approached both the driver and passenger sides."
The agents smashed the passenger side window, sending fragments of glass into the backseat where her children — ages 14, 12 and 3 — sat, Guerrero said.
" The officers reached inside the car through the window they shattered, they unlocked the door, they grabbed my husband and slammed his face on the sidewalk," she said. "Everything happened so fast."
Guerro said the officers never identified themselves or presented a warrant. She also said her husband, who is from Mexico, didn't resist.
The law clearly states that law enforcement officials cannot open the car door without justification," he said. "What happened to Mrs. Guerrero and her family ... is nothing short of a violation of their well-established constitutional rights under federal law and state law."
Mercedes Pineda of East Boston said her family is struggling after her husband was arrested at work and detained for two days at an ICE facility in Burlington.
" We are deeply traumatized," Pineda said through an interpreter. "My husband and I can't sleep. I'm afraid to go out. I'm afraid to take my daughter to school. Our 12-year-old daughter who was born in this country has anxiety attacks."
Pineda said her husband, who is from El Salvador, had temporary protected status, which gave him the right to live and work here. But the ICE agents who detained him, she said, told him that "only people born here have rights."
While the Trump administration has revoked temporary status for people from a number of countries, it extended the status for El Salvador in January.
In a third case discussed at the meeting Monday, a woman from Randolph said the immigration officials who arrested her husband wrongly accused him of theft.
Caitlyn Burgess, a senior attorney with MacMurray and Associates who was in attendance, said her office has heard a lot of cases like this.
"We are seeing a fabrication of allegations made by ICE," she said. "We [are seeing] an erosion of due process."
State Sen. Lydia Edwards, whose district includes East Boston, said she worries about how the "narrative" around immigration is changing in this country.
"There's a criminalization of immigration in and of itself," she said. The Trump administration “wants to deport en masse. So in order to do that, they need to detain en masse. In order to do that, they need to criminalize en masse. And in order to do that, they create more crimes."
At a press conference in Boston on Monday, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said the agency arrested 1,461 immigrants in the state during May, including 790 officials said involved “significant criminality.”
The officials who spoke said they consider all people in the country without legal status criminals.
Gov. Maura Healey and other state officials havedemanded greater accountability from ICE during arrests, some of which have turnedchaotic. In most cases, the agency doesn't release details of why people are being arrested or where they’re being taken.
" The federal government's desperation to fill jails with immigrants has torn families apart and inflicted deep emotional trauma," Pressley said. "This has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with power and control and intimidation."
— Worcester father of 4-month-old deported after ICE ‘violated his rights,’ attorney says by Adam Bass, MassLive: “The Worcester father of a 4-month-old child was deported to Fortaleza, Brazil, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials signed a deportation authorization document in his name without his permission, according to his attorney.”
THE RACE FOR CITY HALL
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Easthampton City Councilor At-Large Felicia Jadczak and School Committee Member Meghan Ward Harvey are endorsing Lindsi Sekula for mayor in Easthampton. Sekula’s “track record in City Hall show a leader who listens, builds meaningful connections, and shows up for all of Easthampton,” Jadczak said in a statement.
FROM THE 413
— Springfield officials support legislation to automatically seal criminal records by Jeanette DeForge, The Springfield Republican: “Saying people shouldn’t be punished twice for the same crime, city officials are pushing for legislation to automatically seal records for those who committed nonviolent crimes three to seven years after conviction. The Clean Slate Initiative, which is now being debated in the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary, would automatically seal records of misdemeanor crimes three years after conviction and after seven years for a felony.”
excerpt:
The law has a clause exempting some, including sex offenders and others who have committed violent felonies, from having their records sealed automatically, according to the bill.
PAYWALL FOR THE REST OF THE ARTICLE
Springfield officials support legislation to automatically seal criminal records
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THE LOCAL ANGLE
— How Everett mayor’s campaign aide got hired as a $550-an-hour city spokesman by Stephanie Ebbert, The Boston Globe: “When he hired his campaign spokesman as a communications consultant for the city two years ago, Mayor Carlo DeMaria explained it as an act of necessity, not favoritism: George Regan’s firm was the only one that had responded to the city’s solicitation. What he didn’t explain was how little time the city gave the other would-be bidders.”
— Worcester activist critical of city manager faces one-year city hall ban by Adam Bass, MassLive: “A Worcester resident and activist has been banned from using city hall for one year, according to a letter from City Manager Eric D. Batista. On May 27, Batista issued a no-trespassing order to David Webb, a Worcester resident who has been a frequent critic of Batista’s administration — accusing the city manager and his staff of not being transparent or truthful to the city’s residents.”
— Fall River Public Schools pays $134K to restore data in cyberattack by Emily Scherny and Dan Medeiros, The Herald News: “The ‘cybersecurity incident’ discovered on April 7 that left Fall River Public Schools without access to their internal network and internet service ‘for the rest of the week,’ and was eventually fully restored — to the tune of $134,278 in out-of-pocket costs. Superintendent Dr. Tracy Curley has not yet specified the nature of the cyberattack, but during an April 8 joint meeting of the City Council and School Committee, she alerted city officials that they did not have insurance to mitigate the fallout of what happened.”
excerpts:
Superintendent Dr. Tracy Curley has not yet specified the nature of the cyberattack, but during an April 8 joint meeting of the City Council and School Committee, she alerted city officials that they did not have insurance to mitigate the fallout of what happened.
Curley said she is confident the district would be better prepared if future attacks occurred.
The superintendent’s office has not yet disclosed to whom the money was paid in response to further public records requests.
In 2013, Swansea police paid off scammers who encrypted several files in their computer system and held them for ransom, paying $750, then the value of two Bitcoins.
As recently as December 2022 and January 2023, Bristol Community College and Swansea Public Schools were affected by cyberattacks.
The city of New Bedford suffered a major ransomware attack with criminals demanding $5.3 million in Bitcoin in 2019. The city counteroffered $400,000 from insurance proceeds; when this was rejected, the city worked with tech support to successfully recover the data.
— Norton school board OKs new cellphone policy for high school by Madison Dunphy, The Sun Chronicle: “The school committee has approved a policy to require high school students to put their cellphones in a rack or hanging pocket holder when they enter a classroom and keep them there until class is over. The committee approved the student handbook policy revision for cellphones and similar personal electronic devices at their meeting last week.”
MEDIA MATTERS
***RESTORE FUNDING & PROTECT THE UNBIASED REPORTING & EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION BY PBS & NPR!****
IN MANY REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED AREAS, PBS & NPR ARE THEIR ONLY SOURCES OF UNBIASED REPORTING! BY DESIGN REPUBLICANS HAS PREVENTED ACCESS TO THE INTERNET & CABLE TO PERPETUATE PROPAGANDA FROM PROPAGANDIST SINCLAIR!
— GBH lays off 6 percent of staff due to funding cuts, rising costs and stagnant revenues by Aidan Ryan, The Boston Globe: “GBH is laying off 45 employees, 6 percent of its staff, across more than a dozen departments due to financial challenges that include federal grants cut by the Trump administration. The cuts come less than a month after GBH laid off nine staff members at WORLD Channel, a television channel that focused on global news, programs, and documentaries. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in consultation with GBH, cut funding for the channel because it wasn’t sustainable.”
HEARD ‘ROUND THE BUBBLAH
TRANSITIONS — Dr. Paul Manuel will be the new principal of Boston College High School starting Aug. 1. He currently is a member of the faculty in Georgetown University's government department.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY — to Eric S. Rosengren, Sean McFate and Eric Farmer.
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