Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey declared that a state of emergency exists in the state Tuesday due to rapidly rising numbers of migrant families arriving in Massachusetts needing shelter and services and a severe lack of shelter availability.
Healey also sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for “urgent” help with the issue. The state is spending $45 million per month and is being forced to care for roughly 5,500 migrants, including young children and “pregnant people,” the governor’s letter stated.
“This state of emergency arises from numerous factors, among them federal policies on immigration and work authorization, inadequate production of affordable housing over the last decade, and the end of COVID-era food and housing security programs. The need for action is urgent,” Healey wrote to Mayorkas.
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“State employees and our partners have been miracle workers throughout this crisis – going above and beyond to support families and using every tool at their disposal to expand shelter capacity by nearly 80 percent in the last year. But in recent months, 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,” said Healey.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is now running for president, sent roughly 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, in September.
The island scrambled to deploy resources, eventually moving the migrants to Joint Base Cape Cod.
“To our partners in the federal government, Massachusetts has stepped up to address sadly what has been a federal crisis of inaction that is many years in the making,” Healey wrote to Mayorkas. “But we can no longer do this alone.”
Massachusetts is experiencing a surge in illegal migration as New York City grapples with its own lack of space as it cares for more than 57,000 migrants.
Meanwhile, federal authorities at the southern border are seeing illegal migration increase again after dipping in June. Border Patrol agents made roughly 130,000 apprehensions of illegal migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in July after making roughly 99,000 in June.
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