US Attorney Leah Foley: Criminal immigration charges up more than 500% in Massachusetts

Colleen Cronin, Boston Herald on Feb 12, 2026

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Much of U.S. Attorney Leah Foley’s work in her first 12 months in office has centered on immigration, she told reporters at a roundtable Thursday, but looking to the upcoming year, she hopes to target public benefits fraud and other crimes.

In 2025, the U.S. Attorney’s Office saw a six-fold increase in criminal immigration charges, Foley said, from 22 individuals charged in 2024 to 139 “criminal immigration matters” charged last year.

The number of child exploitation charges also doubled, and the office’s charges increased overall by 80%, she said.

On the civil side, habeas petitions increased 12,000%, according to Foley. The office saw 850 habeas petitions in 2025 compared to seven the previous year. A habeas petition is a request for custody review by a judge, and the increase in petitions comes from individuals who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

When asked about federal judges’ decisions in favor of the petitioners detained by ICE, Foley said that she hopes that the circuit court will take up the issue.

“There is a tension between how (the Department of Homeland Security) views the law and how the courts [view it] when it comes to mandatory detentions,” she said.

“Just to be clear,” she added, “the judges are not ruling that these people have not violated federal law. They are ruling that they are entitled to a bond hearing to determine if release is appropriate.”

Foley said that although the office has been operating with fewer staff and criminal prosecutors, the increase in immigration cases hasn’t been a burden.

“Except for the defensive litigation unit,” which is handling the spike in habeas petitions from ICE detainees, she said, “the immigration criminal work has been spread across the office.”

Foley also answered several questions about the tension of being a Trump appointee in a blue state and the difficulties of dealing with differing federal and local policies on immigration.

“Personally, I have not experienced any negative kind of reactions just because I happen to be a Trump appointee,” she said. “Because I do believe that if you know my record, you know who I am and what is important to me.”

Foley said that her office has great working relationships with the state’s law enforcement agencies, but she acknowledged and explained criticism she’s made of some local leaders.

“The words that came out of their mouths were not truthful,” Foley said, referring to times she’s taken to social media to criticize state Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Both have raised concerns about violations of civil and constitutional rights by ICE.

“Just as I agree, everyone should be trying to calm the waters and talk about what is really going on and who we are arresting and why we are arresting them, instead of just making it appear that this is just an assault of immigration,” Foley added.

She said she welcomes the opportunity to work with state and local agencies on immigration, especially on civil detainers, which many jurisdictions are not following. Foley also warned that it’s the lack of cooperation that has caused issues in places like Minnesota — though she said noted she wasn’t sure where the next ICE surge would be.

“This office has nothing to do with intense crackdowns,” Foley said, “but what has been said before is in areas of the country where the state and locals cooperate with ICE, you don’t see that type of friction and chaos in the streets.”

Although much of Thursday’s reporter roundtable revolved around immigration, Foley said that she has other top priorities in the coming year, including investigating fraud in government programs and the online extremist organization “764 group.”

“We have definitely planned to bring more cases in the area of the public benefits, the SNAP and other benefits, and just fraud in general, on a more broader scale,” Foley said. The Herald previously reported that her office will establish a fraud coordinator in the coming weeks.

Foley said she hopes to bring together investigators from DHS and the inspector general offices of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Labor “to coordinate together, to be force multipliers, and to try to identify where the system breakdown is.”

She said that she hasn’t yet had a conversation with Governor Maura Healey about coordinating with the state on the issue.

In addition to the focus on fraud, Foley said that her officer will continue to look into the 764 group. She explained that the decentralized group operates in the U.S. and abroad using sextortion and extortion against children.

The office is currently prosecuting someone who allegedly threatened to murder a Massachusetts child online and espoused the ideology of the group in posts.

“It is a huge concern,” Foley said, “and I understand that many members of the public have absolutely no idea what it is.”

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