Democratic Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency on Tuesday over the rising number of illegal immigrants availing themselves of her state’s shelter system.
On Tuesday, Gov. Healey’s administration announced there were approximately 5,600 families or more than 20,000 individuals in state shelters, including children and pregnant women. She said her state’s employees and partner organizations have gone “above and beyond” in their efforts to find shelter options for people arriving in the state, but that “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.”
“I am declaring a state of emergency in Massachusetts and urging my partners in the federal government to take the action we need to address this crisis by streamlining the work authorization process and passing comprehensive immigration reform,” Ms. Healey announced.
The influx of new arrivals comes as several states, including the border state of Texas, have been busing illegal border crossers to other parts of the country, including Massachusetts. Ms. Healey said an average of 68 families per day had requested assistance from her state’s shelter program in March, but that number had risen to an average of 100 families per day in July. She said just 25 families per day came to seek assistance in March of 2022.
Along with declaring a state of emergency, Ms. Healey appealed directly to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to take action, including efforts to more rapidly approve work authorizations for non-citizens.
“There now exists in the Commonwealth a state of emergency due to rapid and unabating increases in the number of families with children and pregnant people—many of them newly arriving migrants and refugees—living within the state but without the means to secure safe shelter in our communities,” she wrote. “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.”
Democrats Increasingly Alarmed Over Shelter Capacity
Ms. Healey is not the only politician who has raised concern over the growing demand for shelter and assistance in recent months.
On May 9, Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a similar emergency declaration over the growing number of people entering her state’s shelter systems. The order authorized for up to 1,500 New York National Guard troops to assist at shelter sites, while also granting state and local officials added authority to purchase shelter supplies, food, and other resources.
Ms. Hochul issued her emergency order ahead of the expiration of Title 42 immigration authorities in May—a set of pandemic-era policies that had allowed immigration authorities to rapidly turn away immigration applicants and expel illegal border crossers, citing public health concerns.
Biden administration officials have reported a decline in border encounters since the end of Title 42, but some Republicans have expressed their skepticism of the veracity of those claims, and have alleged border encounters have simply been reclassified to conceal continued record-high border encounters.
For months, Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams has described continued struggles to find shelter for the non-citizens arriving in his city. His administration recently designated a parking lot at a mental health facility as a new shelter location. Mr. Adams has also called for more federal funding to reimburse his city for shelter costs.
In July, 54 elected New York Democrats sent a letter to the Biden administration, requesting he issue his own emergency declaration on immigration and that he take a number of actions, including the implementation of a Temporary Protected Status (TPS)—a federal designation that allows non-citizens from certain countries to remain in the U.S. and find employment without risking deportation.
“All we need is the White House to give us that TPS (temporary protected status) to allow the men and women to work,” Mr. Adams told ABC News on Tuesday. “The congressional delegation is calling for it. Local leaders are calling for it. Everyone is calling for it.”
The Democratic July letter did not differentiate between those who entered the country legally or illegally, or to curbing illegal border crossings.