ICE, FBI, and DEA arrest 370 people in Boston-area worksite raids, seize 49kg of drugs

Between March 18 and 23, 2025, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI, and the DEA jointly conducted worksite enforcement raids across warehouses and restaurants in the greater Boston area, arresting 370 people over six days. The operation was one of the largest coordinated worksite immigration enforcement actions in New England in at least a decade, and among the first major HSI worksite operations of the second Trump administration.

Agents seized 44 kilograms of methamphetamine and 5 kilograms of fentanyl during the raids — significant quantities that DHS cited to frame the operation as a combined immigration enforcement and drug interdiction effort. The presence of drug seizures allowed the administration to tie the worksite arrests to its broader 'narco-terrorism' framing, even though the majority of those arrested faced immigration violations rather than drug charges.

DHS said 205 of the 370 people arrested had 'significant criminal convictions' — a phrase the agency used consistently across immigration enforcement announcements in 2025 without defining which offenses qualified. Immigration attorneys noted that under Trump administration policy, minor traffic offenses, old misdemeanor convictions, and even charges that were later dismissed had been counted in prior operations' criminal conviction statistics.

The raids targeted warehouses and food service operations — industries that depend heavily on immigrant labor and where undisclosed employment of undocumented workers is common. The warehousing sector in 🏛️Massachusetts employs tens of thousands of workers in supply chain roles tied to grocery distribution, pharmaceutical logistics, and e-commerce fulfillment. Food service disruptions in Boston were immediate: several restaurants closed following the raids, and staffing shortages rippled through the sector in the following weeks.

8 U.S.C. § 1324 — the federal law under which the operation was authorized — criminalizes knowingly employing, transporting, harboring, or concealing undocumented immigrants. Worksite enforcement under this statute can result in criminal charges against employers, not just workers. The March 2025 Boston raids included employer-side charges: several warehouse operators and restaurant owners were named in criminal referrals to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of 🏛️Massachusetts.

HSI — the investigative arm of DHS — historically focused worksite enforcement on criminal employers rather than mass arrests of workers. Under the Obama administration, HSI's predecessor ICE conducted the 2008 Postville, 🌽Iowa raid that arrested 389 workers and led to the closure of a meatpacking plant, a model widely criticized as economically and humanitarianly destructive. The Boston operation echoed that model — mass worker arrests alongside employer referrals — in a major metro area for the first time since the Obama-era pullback from worksite enforcement.

🏛️Massachusetts Gov. MHMaura Healey and Boston Mayor MWMichelle Wu both condemned the raids and directed state and city agencies not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement beyond what federal law required. The City of Boston's 'sanctuary city' policy — which bars Boston Police from asking about immigration status or detaining people at ICE's request without a judicial warrant — remained in effect, though it has no legal authority over HSI operations on private worksites.

The Boston raids preceded the Chicago, Charlotte, and New Orleans deployments by several months and were part of the same rolling national worksite enforcement campaign. Unlike those later operations — which used Border Patrol agents — the Boston operation was led by HSI, whose agents have permanent criminal investigative authority and are trained for complex worksite cases. The distinction matters legally: HSI agents can pursue criminal charges against employers, while Border Patrol's authority is largely civil immigration enforcement.