Deputy Secretary of Transportation Steven Bradbury revealed plans Aug. 27 to initiate a federal takeover of South Station.
The announcement came during the unveiling of a new high-speed Acela train. Bradbury stated that South Station required a federal takeover similar to those occurring in Washington, D.C. The Trump administration has deployed numerous Immigration and Customs Enforcement and National Guard officers to patrol D.C., including Union Station, a major transportation hub along the East Coast.
The Trump administration has brought up concerns about crime and cleanliness as reasons for the takeovers. “Here in South Boston,” Bradbury said during the announcement, “we need to address the cleanliness, the crime, the safety and security of the station for the rail workers, for the passengers, because the people of Boston deserve that.”
The Department of Transportation currently owns Union Station and has stated that they are reclaiming management after years of relaxed control. South Station, however, is owned by the MBTA, which brings up concerns about the legality of a federal takeover.
“South Station is not the property of the federal government and there’s no legal way for anything like that to happen,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said Aug. 28. “This is not a game of authoritarian monopoly. This is a government with laws and a constitution that clearly shows who is in control of what.”
Wu has clashed with the Trump administration multiple times over the city’s sanctuary status. The Department of Justice issued a letter Aug. 13 to Boston and other sanctuary jurisdictions instructing them to comply with federal immigration laws or face prosecution and loss of funding. In response, Wu held a press conference Aug. 19 in which she stated the city would not “back down” and told the Trump administration to “stop attacking our cities to hide your administration’s failures.”
The Trump administration has deployed National Guard troops to patrol other sanctuary cities, including Los Angeles, where a federal judge ruled on Sept. 2 that the deployment violated the law. The administration has also identified New Orleans, Chicago and Baltimore as potential targets for similar federal interventions.
Todd Lyons, director of ICE, stated Aug. 20 that Boston could expect a “larger ICE presence” aimed at eliminating “public threats” in the city. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey released a statement Aug. 28 condemning this idea.
“What the Trump Administration is doing in D.C. and now threatening to do at South Station is outrageous, wrong and has nothing to do with transportation or public safety,” Healey said. “It’s more political theater, more political power grabs from Donald Trump. We don’t need or want his interference here. We’re not going to let the guy who went bankrupt six times take over our train stations.”
