Judicial Watch Sues Boston Mayor for Details of Pro-Sanctuary Press Conference Featuring Mariachi Band

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Massachusetts Public Records Law lawsuit against the City of Boston for details about a press conference – opened by a mariachi band – held by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on August 19, 2025, during which Wu publicly defied U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s demands that Boston comply with federal immigration law (Judicial Watch v. City of Boston (No. 2584 cv 03395)).

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the Suffolk County Superior Court after the Wu administration failed to respond to a public records request for emails of Mayor Wu and her immediate staff about Attorney General Bondi’s demands that Boston modify its sanctuary-city policy and cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as records related to the appearance of a mariachi band at the August 19, 2025, press conference.

At the August 19 event, Wu reportedly vowed to resist the Justice Department’s efforts to secure cooperation from local governments with federal immigration enforcement. The event opened with mariachi music performed for attendees as Wu positioned Boston as a defiant “sanctuary” jurisdiction in opposition to federal law.

 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that in September 2025 it and federal partners arrested more than 1,400 illegal aliens in Massachusetts – including murderers, rapists, drug traffickers, child sex predators and members of violent transnational criminal gangs. Acting ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said, “Every illegal alien we arrested during the operation was breaking U.S. immigration law, and hundreds were violent criminals who should never have been allowed to roam freely in our communities.”

“Mayor Wu staged a racist political spectacle instead of cooperating with federal law enforcement – even as dangerous criminal aliens are at large in her city,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Boston residents deserve to know why the mayor’s office refuses transparency about this event and why city hall is stonewalling lawful public records requests.”

In October 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Office of the Mayor of Evanston, IL, for records related to obstruction of federal immigration enforcement

In January 2025, Judicial Watch sued Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office for records regarding his vow to resist the Trump administration’s mass deportation and other immigration law enforcement activities.

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