Nantucket ICE Arrests Among Nearly 1,500 During "Operation Patriot" In Massachusetts

The 12 people arrested by ICE agents and other federal authorities on Nantucket late last month were among 1,461 individuals taken into custody during the month of May in what has been dubbed "Operation Patriot."

Officials representing several federal agencies announced the results of the operation during a press conference in Boston on Monday, and acting ICE director Todd Lyons vowed that it was only the beginning of the government's immigration enforcement efforts in Massachusetts.

"Make no mistake," Lyons said. "ICE is going to keep doing this. We're going to keep coming back. Because ICE is gonna make sure that we keep communities safe and keep our neighborhoods safe from these sex offenders and these criminal aliens."

Of the 1,461 people taken into custody, 277 had been ordered to be removed from the United States by an immigration judge, and 790 had "significant criminality," according to Patricia Hyde, the acting field office director for ICE Boston.

"Make no mistake, every person we arrested was breaking our immigration laws," Hyde said. "But most of these individuals, 790 to be exact, had significant criminality as well. That is 790 alien offenders who victimized innocent people, who traumatized entire communities. Represented in these numbers are murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, child sex predators, and members of violent, transnational criminal gangs. We arrested criminal aliens who have been convicted of violent crimes in the United States and some of who were wanted for criminality in their native countries, all made the mistake of attempting to subvert justice by hiding out in Massachusetts." 

While ICE named and detailed the allegations against 14 of the individuals taken into custody, none of them were the people taken into custody on Nantucket. The Current requested ICE to release the names and charges against those detained on the island, but we have not received a response as of Tuesday evening.

Several family members of those taken into custody on Nantucket told the Current their relatives were in the United States illegally, but had not committed any crimes since their arrival.

During Monday's press conference, Hyde described why some individuals who may not have been specifically targeted by ICE were taken into custody nonetheless.

"Sanctuary policies put us in a position to go out into communities and look for people," Hyde said. "When jurisdictions don't cooperate with ICE and we don't arrest people custodially, in custodial arrests, then we must go out into the community. And when we go out into the community and we find others who are unlawfully here, we are going to arrest them. We've been completely transparent with that."

Lyons responded to a question about why ICE and other federal agents were conducting the operation while wearing masks.

"People are out there taking photos of their names, of their faces, and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves," Lyons said. "So I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there, put their lives and put their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is."

Democratic officials in Massachusetts, including Governor Maura Healey and Congressman Bill Keating, continued to raise questions and concerns about the ICE operation.

"I write with deep concerns regarding immigration enforcement actions that have taken place during the week of May 26, 2025, in my district on the islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, as well as in the Town of Plymouth," Keating wrote in a letter to ICE, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security. "These actions – undertaken by agents of ICE, the FBI, and other federal agencies, many of them masked and in unmarked vehicles – have left these communities scared, confused, and fearful for their own safety, regardless of immigration status."

Keating asked the federal agencies,"Was there a specific reason for choosing to engage in enforcement actions on the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard on the day after Memorial Day?"