Boston Mayor Wu to headline 'No Kings' protest amid sanctuary battle with feds

Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald on Oct 7, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is set to headline a “No Kings” protest on Oct. 18, roughly a month after the city was sued by the Trump administration over its sanctuary policies that the feds see as thwarting their widespread immigration crackdown.

Wu, who has battled with the Trump administration over immigration and other policies in recent months, will be featured at this month’s protest in Boston alongside “other leading voices of resistance,” according to event organizers.

The planned demonstration at the Parade Grounds on Boston Common, at Charles and Beacon Streets, will coincide with other “No Kings” rallies that will be occurring across the country, as part of an “Oct. 18 day of action.”

“On Oct. 18, the people of Boston will assemble to say with one wicked loud voice, ‘America has No Kings,” event organizers said in a Monday press release. “This is part of a national day of action against the Trump regime’s authoritarian abuses, cruelty and corruption.”

As of last week, more than 2,100 local protests were set to take place across all 50 states. Those numbers would put the events this month on track to surpass the June 14 No Kings day of action over the summer, which saw more than 5 million people protesting across the country, event organizers said.

Wu attended and spoke at the June No Kings rally in Boston, but is billed as the headliner by event organizers this time around.

Since June’s protest, Wu has refused to comply with a federal order to dismantle the city’s sanctuary policies, namely the Trust Act, which limits local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

At a rally-like press conference in late August, Wu announced her intention to defy the federal order, issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi, saying that “Boston will never back down.”

The feds sued the City of Boston, Wu, the Boston Police Department and the police commissioner shortly thereafter, in early September, over the city’s sanctuary policies, which Bondi said at the time are “designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice.”

Local event organizers said this month’s No Kings demonstration in Boston will focus, in part, on “(protecting) our immigrant neighbors.”

“We’re wicked pissed, but we’re wicked united,” event organizers said in this week’s press release. “And we’re going to be wicked loud. This fight is bigger than partisan politics.

“Boston is rising up to protect democracy because the Trump regime is: sending ICE’s masked ‘secret police’ into our neighborhoods — profiling, threatening and disappearing people; defying courts, cutting jobs, gutting health care and education, and eliminating food and housing assistance; silencing voters through gerrymandering and voter suppression; ignoring mass shootings; all while handing out giveaways to their billionaire allies.”

Mayor Wu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the event organizers’ characterization of her as the demonstration’s headliner.

_____