Federal immigration agents conducted raids across Boston and nearby communities over the weekend, arresting dozens of people, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security.

The move came as the Justice Department filed suit against the city and its mayor, intensifying a clash over local sanctuary policies. Local officials have rejected the federal operations as unnecessary and authoritarian overreach.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the operation, dubbed “Patriot 2.0,” followed a similar sweep in May. The agency said those taken into custody included individuals accused of sexual assault, drug trafficking and gang activity who had been released from local jails despite federal requests to hold them. Officials said Boston’s policies allowed dangerous offenders to remain in communities instead of being deported.

President Donald Trump, who has deployed National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers to Washington, has also threatened repeatedly to send forces into Chicago to tackle crime there.

On Saturday, the president posted a meme on Truth Social evoking the Vietnam War-themed movie "Apocalypse Now," with a caption that said, “I love the smell of deportations in the morning” and saying Chicago is about to find out why he changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.

Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, was asked Sunday during an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on whether enforcement activities are expected in Chicago this week. “Absolutely,” he replied. “You can expect action in most sanctuary cities across the country.”

Illinois’s Democratic governor, JB Pritzker, rejected Trump’s threat, writing in a post on X that “Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.” Even so, organizers decided to postpone a major Mexican Independence Day festival scheduled for next weekend amid fears over a potential immigration crackdown. A smaller celebration went ahead as scheduled on Saturday.

In downtown Chicago, fencing was set up ahead of the weekend near the Everett McKinley Dirksen Courthouse, a federal building. Another building that will be used by ICE in the village of Broadview, west of downtown Chicago, was also fortified.

At a press conference on Friday, Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, said the ICE mission would run for a month through Oct. 5, according to information provided to Illinois lawmakers by officials at a meeting at the Naval Station Great Lakes near Lake Michigan.

Two days before the raids in Massachusetts, the Justice Department sued Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu and the Boston Police Department, arguing the city’s sanctuary ordinances obstruct federal enforcement. Attorney General Pam Bondi called Boston “among the worst sanctuary offenders in America.”

Wu pushed back, accusing the administration of political overreach. “For months, the Trump Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been spreading blatant lies and threatening to ‘bring hell’ to cities like Boston who refuse to bow down to their authoritarian agenda,” she said in a statement Saturday.

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(With assistance from Se Young Lee.)

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