When Bilal Karayigit was arrested in December 2023 on charges of rape and indecent assault and battery, the city of Boston’s Brighton District Court allowed the 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Turkey to evade an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer request.
On Friday, ICE Boston announced it had arrested the alleged rapist, after he was released a second time, and by a Massachusetts court official.
“The Boston Police Department arrested Karayigit September 19, 2024, on warrants stemming from his pending charges,” the federal agency reported. “ICE lodged an immigration detainer against Karayigit with the Nashua Street Jail in Boston later that day. The jail ignored the immigration detainer and released Karayigit from custody on September 26, 2024.
“ICE served Karayigit with a notice to appear before a Justice Department immigration judge after his arrest and he remains in ICE custody.”
“He represents a significant threat to the members of our Massachusetts neighborhoods that ICE will not tolerate,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde said in a statement. “We will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing illegal alien threats to New England.”
The report comes two weeks after a pair of Turkish nationals were intercepted at the Canadian border trying to illegally enter New Hampshire.
Karayigit’s arrest is part of what has been a whirlwind of activity for federal immigration officials in Massachusetts and other parts of New England ever since President Donald Trump took office in January.
Boston’s stated refusal to work with ICE on immigration detainer requests was thrust into the national spotlight earlier this month when Mayor Michelle Wu was called on by a congressional oversight committee to answer questions about the city’s policy.
Wu insisted Boston follows federal immigration law, but according to the city’s 2014 TRUST Act, which was reauthorized in 2024 under her leadership, local police are barred from “involvement in civil immigration enforcement.”
In one particularly contentious flare-up during the March 5 hearing, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) accused Wu and other backers of Boston’s ordinance of allowing rapists to return to the city streets.
“That is not true,” Wu claimed.
It is possible Boston’s handling of Karayigit and dozens of others allowed to roam free despite ICE detainer requests will come back to haunt Wu.
One of the lawmakers who grilled Wu during the March 5 hearing, U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), had issued a formal recommendation to the Justice Department calling for Wu to be subjected to a criminal investigation.
New Hampshire, meanwhile, continues to show a willingness to work with federal immigration authorities – at least at the state level. Last month, GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte announced that State Police would be allowed to resuscitate a joint task force model with ICE that had been abandoned during the Biden administration.
The Belknap and Grafton county sheriff’s offices have signed on, too, along with the police departments in Gorham, Ossipee, Colebrook and Pittsburg.
However, several New Hampshire municipalities continue to embrace policies like Boston’s that forbid local law enforcement from assisting with the enforcement of federal immigration law.
The town of Peterborough, for example, recently made headlines after four individuals were taken into custody during a joint ICE-Drug Enforcement Administration operation. In response, Peterborough town officials publicly reiterated their policy forbidding the police department from cooperating with immigration enforcement efforts.
Polls continue to show Americans back increased immigration enforcement. A new NBC News poll released Sunday shows 55 percent of voters approve of Trump’s immigration policy, and just 43 percent disapprove. And a poll from the Saint Anselm College Survey Center released last week found New Hampshire voters support President Trump’s policy of deporting illegal immigrants 55 to 44 percent.
