Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is calling on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to release a 13-year-old boy, who is an American citizen, calling his detainment “alarming,” Boston.com reports.
The young boy in question is a Everett, Massachusetts, resident who was arrested Oct. 9 at a bus stop following a “credible tip” that he made a violent threat against another student. Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria said police recovered a double-sided knife from the boy; however, Pressley is focusing on how agents should have treated him “with compassion and care” rather than detaining him. “It is absolutely alarming that the Trump Administration and its rogue ICE agents would abduct a 13-year-old child, transport him to a facility over 500 miles away without his family, lawyer or a court knowing,” Pressley said in a statement.
The lawmaker touched on the detainee being a 7th-grader who is allegedly being met with “harrowing, inhumane conditions, including inadequate nutrition and sleeping on a concrete floor with an aluminum blanket while still healing from a broken foot.”
Pressley has remained outspoken against her Republican colleagues, who have control of both the Senate and House, in the fight against immigration and healthcare. According to the Boston Globe, she spoke out against a Republican-led bill authorizing children who are as young as 14 to be tried as adults in the legal system. During a speech to bipartisan colleagues, Pressley provided a different route, highlighting the importance of supporting community-based public safety solutions.
As the 2025 government shutdown enters day 20, Pressley says the GOP isn’t as serious about the future for “all our children.” Instead, they insist on criminalizing them. “Investing in prevention, mental health and community-based support keeps people safe. These are real sustainable solutions…,” she said in a speech during a committee hearing.
“If Republicans were actually serious about reducing crime, they would follow that example but they are so unserious. Instead of going after predators and pedophiles like Jeffrey Epstein, they are going after children, passing policies to ship middle schoolers to adult prisons. That is child abuse.”
Pressley has been a staunch critic of Trump and the administration’s anti-democracy ways, especially when it comes to tactics from ICE. In April 2025, she traveled to a detention center in Louisiana along with other lawmakers to meet and advocate for the release of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student who was detained by ICE after a pro-Palestine op-ed in the school’s student newspaper was published.
Amid threats to those who don’t think like Trump or his followers, Pressley highlighted another way to have voices heard during Boston’s No Kings rally. “Because the only way to beat a dictator is with defiance,” she said.
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