By George Lehman
Boston University News Service
Gov. Maura Healey called on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to resign after the fatal shooting of a man in Minnesota on Saturday, and said President Donald Trump should “rein” in federal immigration efforts.
The governor said Noem should step down comes after Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who worked at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, was shot and killed by a border patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday after he allegedly “approached” border patrol agents with a semi-automatic handgun, Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino said during a press conference.
“There was no need for all of that to go down in the way that it did. It is just an example of how out of control ICE is,” Healey said during a press conference on Monday. “It’s why Kristi Noem has got to go.”
Healey also called on Trump to “act and step up.”
“If he doesn’t act, then Republicans in Congress need to force the accountability here,” Healey said. “We cannot continue to have Americans in our neighborhoods and cities and states across this country at risk.”
Healey has expressed a similar sentiment towards federal immigration enforcement efforts this past week during her State of the Commonwealth Address on Thursday.
“The Trump administration right now is sending masked agents by the thousands into cities and states across America,” Healey said during her address. “A woman is dead, others have been shot, innocent people detained, [and] mothers and fathers ripped out of their cars with their young kids tugging at their sides.”
Healey noted Marcelo Gomes da Silva, who was a student at Milford High School when he was detained earlier this year after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers found Gomes da Silva to be in the United States illegally while conducting a vehicle stop with the intention of apprehending another individual, according to DHS.
The governor also mentioned Any Lucia López Belloza, a Babson College Student who was deported to Honduras two days after being detained at Boston Logan International Airport while traveling to see her family in Texas for Thanksgiving this past November, according to reporting from the Associated Press.
“Now we have parents, of course, afraid to send their kids to school or to go to church or see a doctor,” Healey said. “I was a prosecutor and Attorney General, and I can tell you, none of this makes us safer.”
Healey announced her bid for reelection in a video last Tuesday by continuing to take a firm stance in opposition towards the Trump administration.
“We see the damage he’s doing to our state and country,” Healey said as her campaign video shows clips of ICE officers smashing car windows and pulling people from vehicles.
According to ICE, the agency and law enforcement partners “apprehended” more than 1,400 illegal immigrants from Sept. 4 to Sept. 30 during a surge operation called Patriot 2.0, and that more than 600 illegal immigrants arrested “had significant criminal convictions or pending criminal charges for crimes,” or “were known foreign fugitives.”
“Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino and other people who don’t know what they’re doing are not doing their jobs responsibly, and are certainly acting in ways that are unlawful, unconstitutional, and do a huge disservice to the American public,” Healey said.
