Boston has become the first municipality in Massachusetts to earn Certified Welcoming status, a 4-star designation from the national nonprofit Welcoming America that recognizes the city's policies and programs supporting immigrant residents. Mayor Michelle Wu, the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, and Welcoming America jointly announced the certification on August 17, following a comprehensive review of city services and community partnerships.
The designation places Boston among 49 cities and counties nationwide that hold Certified Welcoming status, joining 4-star peers like Chicago, San Jose, Dallas, and Baltimore, while San Francisco remains one of the few cities to earn the top 5-star rating, according to WBSM. To qualify, a municipality must meet benchmarks across all seven areas of Welcoming America's Welcoming Standard, covering government leadership, equitable access, civic engagement, connected communities, education, economic development, and safe communities.
Wu said Boston has long been defined by the people who arrived seeking a better life. “Boston has been shaped by generations of immigrants seeking a better future and working hard to build the city,” she said, per the outlet's reporting. She added that she is proud of the work done by the city's Office for Immigrant Advancement, along with community partners and neighborhood and cultural leaders.
A City Built by Newcomers, Backed by the Numbers
The stakes behind the certification are significant: foreign-born residents make up approximately 27.8% of Boston's population, representing more than 185,000 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. That demographic reality has made immigrant integration a central priority for city government, and it underpins the work of the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, which leads Boston's “City of Belonging: You Belong Here” initiative and coordinates an annual Welcoming Week each September connecting foreign-born residents to civic engagement, legal assistance, and workforce programs.
Daniel Valdez said the honor reflects work happening across city government, community organizations, and immigrant residents themselves, according to the same report. “Boston is the first certified welcoming community in Massachusetts,” he said, framing the designation as recognition of a city that has become welcoming in practice, not just in name. Boston has declared itself a sanctuary city on several occasions, and the new certification adds a formal, third-party stamp to that self-identification.
Certification Lands Amid an Ongoing Fight With Federal Immigration Authorities
The recognition arrives during a tense standoff between City Hall and federal immigration authorities. On February 5, Wu signed an executive order prohibiting federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from using city-owned buildings, parks, or parking lots for civil immigration enforcement, while directing city departments to de-escalate encounters, according to Feds Rip Boston Councilor Over Roslindale Uproar. Wu has also indicated she is willing to use the Freedom of Information Act to contact private landlords and plans to discourage them from renting parking spaces to ICE.
That order followed years of legal and political groundwork. Boston's Trust Act, first passed in 2014 and revised in 2019, explicitly bars Boston police officers from asking about immigration status, sharing private release times with ICE, or holding people on civil immigration detainers, per the U.S. Department of Justice. The policy builds on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's 2017 ruling in Lunn v. Commonwealth, which found that state and local law enforcement have no statutory authority to arrest or hold people solely on federal civil ICE detainers.
Federal Pushback and a Recent Court Win
Federal authorities have pushed back against Boston's sanctuary posture repeatedly. In September 2025, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Patriot 2.0, a targeted enforcement sweep across Massachusetts aimed at sanctuary jurisdictions including Boston, an operation Hoodline previously covered in depth. Tom Homan has had public verbal disputes with Wu over undocumented immigrants and her refusal to cooperate with ICE, according to WBSM.
Boston notched a legal victory in that fight on May 28, when a federal district court judge dismissed a Department of Justice lawsuit seeking to overturn the city's sanctuary restrictions, ruling that federal law cannot compel local city resources to carry out federal civil immigration enforcement, according to the Public Rights Project. Both the Massachusetts Legislature and the Healey administration are separately attempting to prevent ICE from apprehending undocumented immigrants in certain areas of the state, according to WBSM's reporting.
Wu has framed Boston's approach as one where everyone belongs, regardless of how they arrived. With the Certified Welcoming designation now official, the city has both a national credential and an ongoing legal fight to point to as evidence of that commitment, even as federal officials continue to challenge the sanctuary framework that underlies it.
