Mayor Marty Walsh responded to President Donald Trump’s proposal to move migrants to sanctuary cities, criticizing the president for the “crazy” plan.
"Those Illegal Immigrants who can no longer be legally held (Congress must fix the laws and loopholes) will be, subject to Homeland Security, given to Sanctuary Cities and States!" Trump tweeted Monday.
Boston, along with a handful of other cities and towns in Massachusetts, has a sanctuary city policy, meaning local police officials are prohibited from detaining anyone based solely on their immigration status.
“The thing that bothers me is that there's really still no conversation around immigration reform in this country,” Walsh told WGBH News Monday. “That's the problem, I mean somebody is going to have to address that someday to really think about how we move forward here.”
Walsh, who recently attended a conference of mayors in Arizona, compared Trump’s plan to ICE policy there. “[Immigration Customs and Enforcement] actually drops people off at bus stations down there,” Walsh said. “When the [detention centers] get too crowded, they literally drop people off at bus stops. … Trump's doing that right now. … He's dropping people off on the border.”
Trump’s tweet came days after Department of Homeland Security lawyers told the Associated Press that the plan would be “unfeasible” and a misuse of funds.
Walsh said the president “comes up with crazy ways” to “keep his name in the press,” suggesting that this plan might just be one more media stunt. “They don't judge him on his entire presidency,” Walsh said. “They judge him on a comment or something he says about something.”
