CHELSEA — The alarm bells weren’t set off by local police or state officials — they were rung by ICE. Federal agents announced that an illegal immigrant with a stomach-turning child sex crime had been taken off the streets of Chelsea, exposing the dangerous reality of Massachusetts’ sanctuary state policies.

The Guatemalan national had been convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child, the kind of crime that should have ended his time in America. Yet under the statewide sanctuary framework backed by Governor Maura Healey and loudly championed by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, he was living freely, blending into neighborhoods where families had no idea of his past.

It wasn’t city hall. It wasn’t Beacon Hill. It was ICE Boston that confirmed the arrest, saying the man now faces deportation proceedings. Their statement was blunt: predators don’t deserve protection, no matter how loudly politicians shout “sanctuary.”

ICE @EROBoston arrested Jose Ramirez-Perez, an illegal alien from Guatemala in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Ramirez-Perez' criminal history includes a charge for indecent assault & battery, a sex crime, against a child in Massachusetts. pic.twitter.com/ODeIvXt05p

— ICE Boston (@EROBoston) September 27, 2025

But even as ICE agents work to remove violent criminals, activists have been outside the Hyatt Place in Medford banging drums late into the night — harassing the very officers who risk their lives to protect families. While ICE agents try to sleep before morning raids, protesters keep up their racket, demanding the release of people like the predator just caught in Chelsea.

This isn’t some fluke; it’s the natural outcome of policies and protests that put ideology above safety. Sanctuary Massachusetts has become a state where convicted child molesters can hide in plain sight, defended by activists who target ICE instead of predators, and by politicians like Healey and Wu who remain silent as families pay the price.

ICE called out the crime. Healey and Wu said nothing. And as activists pound their drums outside hotels, parents across Chelsea and Boston are left to wonder: how many more predators are being hidden under the sanctuary umbrella?