The left-wing governor of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, is striking a more cooperative tone on the issue of President-elect Trump’s pledge to carry out mass deportations, now saying she thinks state and local officials should cooperate in deporting migrants accused of violent crimes. 

After the November 5 election, Ms. Healey was adamant that officials in Massachusetts would use “every tool in the toolbox” to “protect our residents.”

Yet, in more recent interviews with the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, the governor insisted the Bay State is not a “sanctuary state.”

While there is not one standard definition for what makes a state a “sanctuary” state, Massachusetts law enforcement officials have a history of refusing to honor detainer requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold illegal migrants arrested by state authorities. 

On December 17, immigration officials arrested an illegal migrant who was accused of indecent assault and battery on a child but was released by local officials.

In 2018, a Massachusetts judge, Shelley M. Richmond Joseph, was accused of directing an illegal migrant to sneak out a back door of the courtroom to avoid being arrested by ICE officers. She was charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstructing a federal proceeding. However, in 2022, federal prosecutors dropped the charges against her. As part of the agreement, the judge referred herself to the Massachusetts Commission on Judicial Conduct.

Speaking to the Herald, Ms. Healey said, “Violent criminals should be deported if they’re not here lawfully.” She added that local, state, and federal officials should work to prosecute migrants accused of crimes and deport them.

While she voiced support for prosecuting and removing individuals accused of crimes, she said she does not support “showing up at a hotel and rounding up groups of people who are suspected to be here unlawfully — who are here working — and just deporting all of them without a process.”

“I think what we need to do is work together here in Massachusetts to do both things: investigate, hold accountable, deport as necessary folks who are here unlawfully, who’ve engaged in criminal activity, absolutely,” Ms. Healey said. “And also stand up for and protect the people who have been working here, going to school here, raising kids here, to ensure that they are not scared to go to the doctors or drop their kids off at school or go to work.”

Trump’s border tsar, Tom Homan, has vowed to act quickly to deport migrants who are in the country illegally. Mr. Homan said his plan is to first focus on deporting individuals accused of criminals or seen as national-security threats.

Ms. Healey also told the Boston Globe she wants to work with the Massachusetts legislature to implement new limitations on how long migrants can stay in the state’s shelters. The governor said the state’s 40-year-old right-to-shelter law, which provides shelter for families and pregnant women, is being used in ways it was “never intended” amid the influx of migrants.

“My view is that the law was never intended to apply to the circumstance that we’ve been dealing with the last couple of years here — people coming from other states,” Ms. Healey said. “We simply do not have a means to house people.”

She expressed hope that Trump will work with Republicans in Congress to enact “comprehensive immigration reform” with a “strengthening of the border” and a “pathway to citizenship for people who’ve been here, working, contributing to our economy, paying taxes.”

Ms. Healey is not the only governor of a blue state to signal an openness to working with federal officials to deport migrants accused of crimes. New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, told reporters last month that she will be the “first one to call up ICE and say, ‘Get them out of here.’’ However, she also indicated she would like to protect migrants who have not been accused of crimes.