Massachusetts Republicans are denouncing Gov. Maura Healey’s call to defund ICE as the governor has ramped up her criticism of the federal agency since launching her reelection campaign in January.

Appearing on Sunday’s edition of WCVB’s “On the Record” program, Healey was asked about her recent executive order and legislation she filed earlier this month to restrict ICE and its capabilities throughout Massachusetts. She was also asked if the agency should be defunded.

“Yes, because I’ll tell you what: ICE right now has more funding than all state and local law enforcement around the country combined,” Healey answered.

“Right now, ICE has too much power, unbridled authority, no guardrails, and it is not acting like a law enforcement agency,” she said. “And that’s why I say it’s really not a law enforcement agency, at this point.”

The Massachusetts Republican Party is condemning Healey’s latest comments about ICE, likening her calls to defund the agency to that of “the far-left wing of her party.”

“Where was Healey’s criticism when President Biden was opening the border floodgates costing our state billions? The Trump administration begins to effectively enforce our laws, and Healey now declares the entire law enforcement agency null and void. The Governor is threatening to put our communities and residents at risk,” MassGOP Chair Amy Carnevale said in a written statement.

“This kind of cavalier attitude is exactly why voters will agree with Republicans in 2026. Thankfully our federal law enforcement personnel continue their work to make the United States safer again,” she said.

The three Republican gubernatorial candidates are also weighing in, with candidate Brian Shortsleeve saying “no one has benefitted more” from the state’s immigration policies than Healey, adding that she is “over her head” and is mismanaging the migrant crisis.

“In her 2022 campaign, she tried to convince voters she was a moderate by speaking out against defunding law enforcement, but now that is exactly what she is supporting,” Shortsleeve told the Herald. “The best way to ensure safe, effective, and efficient enforcement of our immigration laws and avoid neighborhood raids is not to defund law enforcement, but to cooperate by turning over illegal criminals in local custody for deportation instead of releasing them back onto our streets.”

Candidate Mike Kennealy says Healey should partner with the federal government rather than battling with them over a migrant crisis in which she “largely created.”

“Defunding law enforcement is the wrong approach to solving the multi-billion dollar migrant crisis in Massachusetts, which Maura Healey largely created by advocating for sanctuary state policies and refusing to restrict the right-to-shelter law to citizens. Healey should partner with the federal government to get criminals out of our Commonwealth and out of our country,” Kennealy said.

Fellow candidate Mike Minogue is calling Healey’s words “dangerous” and “political posturing.”

“The governor has shown an aversion to the rule of law and public safety. Her comments and political posturing are beneath the office and dangerous for our citizens. When I’m governor I will make sure our state and local law enforcement work together with federal agencies to get violent criminals off the street,” said Minogue.

Healey’s words come after she issued a press release “demanding” Republican New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte to oppose a new detention and processing center planned by ICE at a Merrimack warehouse.

“We should be opposing ICE’s tactics, not allowing them to expand. We certainly should not be allowing ICE to build new human warehouses when they can’t be trusted to keep people safe and protect due process,” Healey said on Friday. “I oppose this in the strongest possible terms, and I am demanding that Governor Ayotte do everything in her power to block a new ICE facility in Southern New Hampshire.”

Ayotte has since responded to Healey’s demands, telling the New Hampshire Journal, “Get your own house in order, Maura,” in response to Healey.

“New England is in this position because Gov. Healey and Massachusetts created a billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis in our region. Get your own house in order, Maura,” Ayotte told the newspaper. “I will continue to advocate for the town of Merrimack and New Hampshire.”

Healey has sharply increased her criticism of ICE since launching her reelection campaign in January, going as far as to call individual agents “rogue individuals” taking a $50,000 bounty, also claiming that Massachusetts “is not a sanctuary state,” despite her increased criticism and legal actions taken against ICE and DHS along with her widely criticized handling of the surge in illegal immigration during the Biden administration.

“Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state. I’ve said this time and time again. People can buy in and continue with the absolute bull**** rhetoric out of the Trump administration on this. You know they have no respect for cities and states. They don’t respect law enforcement because they’ve got this group of rogue individuals who I guess take in the bounty of $50K,” Healey said following a late-January press conference, going on to call on ICE leadership and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to step down.

The governor continues to state that Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state.

Just a day later, Healey followed up with an announcement that she had filed an executive order prohibiting the state from entering into any new 287(g) agreements while also banning federal agents from making civil arrests in non-public parts of state buildings. She also filed legislation that would ban ICE agents from Massachusetts courthouses, schools, hospitals and other state owned property; and would make it unlawful for another state to deploy its National Guard in Massachusetts without the governor’s permission; among other things.

Healey’s recent actions and statements against ICE, DHS, and President Trump’s countrywide crackdown on illegal immigration have also drawn reaction from the White House and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.

“ICE officers act heroically to enforce the law and protect American communities — local officials should work with them, not against them. Anyone pointing the finger at law enforcement officers instead of the criminals is simply doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Herald.

“The real beneficiaries of ICE’s work are the people of Massachusetts, who are safer when ICE arrests and detains murderers, child sex abusers and other violent criminals who would otherwise be walking the streets,” Lyons said. “The governor would better serve her constituents by focusing less on grandstanding and more on public safety.”

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