Massachusetts Governor Declares Emergency Over Influx of Immigrants

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey in Boston, Mass., on Nov. 30, 2022. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

The governor of Massachusetts on Aug. 8 declared an emergency over the influx of immigrants, a number of whom are in the country illegally.

Gov. Maura Healey said that the state’s shelter system is nearing a breaking point due to “rapidly rising numbers” of immigrants, even after the creation of new emergency sites at places like Joint Base Cape Cod to try to handle the increase.

“Demand has increased to levels that our emergency shelter system cannot keep up with, especially as the number of families leaving shelter has dwindled due to a lack of affordable housing options and barriers to securing work,” Ms. Healey, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Out of more than 5,500 families in shelters, “many” are recent arrivals to Massachusetts, officials said. Another over 1,800 families are living in hotels or motels.

They said that 25 families per day were seeking shelter in March 2022. The number jumped to 68 in March, and more than 100 in July.

The state government is spending more than $45 million per month on the population needing assistance but fears it will soon be overwhelmed.

One solution, according to the governor, is making it easier for immigrants to obtain work authorization.

“I urge you to ... use all available executive power to remove the burdensome barriers keeping people from getting work authorizations, address our outdated and punitive immigration laws, and provide much needed financial assistance to states like Massachusetts address this national issue,” Ms. Healey wrote in a letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “These new arrivals desperately want to work, and we have historic demand for workers across all industries.”

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email that it has provided funding to Boston, the largest city in Massachusetts, for emergency shelter. The agency plans to keep collaborating with city and state officials and call on Congress to approve reforms to the immigration system, the spokesperson said.

Building Crisis Amid Explosion of Illegal Immigration

Massachusetts, and many other states, have faced an escalating crisis amid an explosion of illegal immigration under President Joe Biden.

Agents at the U.S.-Mexico border made two million arrests of illegal immigrants in 2021, President Biden’s first year in office. That set a new record, which was broken by the 2.3 million arrests recorded in 2022.

The immigrants cross into California, Arizona, and Texas, but regularly travel or are transported to states far into the interior after entering the country.

Cities and counties in Illinois, Colorado, and New York, in addition to Washington, have declared emergencies or moved closer to doing so as they struggle to deal with a spike in immigrant arrivals and a fallout that includes overwhelmed shelter systems.

New York officials have worked to house illegal immigrants in churches and private homes, and asked the courts to relieve them providing shelter to all who seek it.

Massachusetts law requires state officials to provide shelter to homeless people.

Massachusetts Rep. Peter Durant, a Republican running for state senator, said Tuesday that Ms. Healey should repeal the state law.

“Our homeless shelters are maxed out. Hotels across the state have been converted to shelters. And the problem is growing on a daily basis. Worse yet, all of this assistance is being taken away from our legal residents and it is a potential safety risk for the children,” Mr. Durant said in a statement. “It is time to repeal the Right to Settle law, so Massachusetts will stop being a magnet state.”

Expanding System

Before this week’s move, Ms. Healey’s administration has been expanding the shelter system as more and more immigrants arrive.

In June, the administration said it would start housing families temporarily at Joint Base Cape Cod, a military base near the coast. Ms. Healey also activated dozens of National Guard personnel to help assist the families at the base.

The situation has deteriorated over time.

“It is not safe any longer on the ground, in our sites,” Danielle Ferrier, chief executive officer of Heading Home, a Boston-area firm that helps the homeless, told the Boston Globe.

“We’re starting to get concerned about the safety of the children and the families” in shelters due to overcrowding, added John Yazwinski, head of Father Bill’s and MainSpring. “We need to ask for help.”

Ed Augustus, the state’s housing secretary, said in a statement that “Our service provider partners are stretched beyond their means, and it has become increasingly difficult to add new shelter units to our EA [emergency assistance] portfolio.”

Ms. Healey said in the new letter that towns and cities have been welcoming immigrant families, and that they should continue to do so.

“To the cities and towns across the state, many of which have a rich history tied to waves of immigrants settling within their borders, I am encouraging communities to keep welcoming those families who wish to resettle in all corners of Massachusetts,” she wrote. ”And I will continue to commend the people of Massachusetts for welcoming families into our community as neighbors—our collective compassion and inclusivity is what makes Massachusetts the exceptional place that is it.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a comment from DHS.