Healey Admin Says, Please, Please Don't Come

(Above, screen grab of Leslie Nielsen from Naked Gun 2 1/2 --attempting to communicate.)

This week, Governor Healey has sent members of her administration to the U.S. southern border, as record numbers of immigrant families continue to arrive in Boston and the state’s family shelter system is at capacity. According to an administration press release, the goal of the trip is to make connections with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Joint Task Force-North, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and families to educate them about the lack of shelter availability in Massachusetts.

That's the proposition. But not everyone is buying it. 

MassGOP Chair, Amy Carnevale, criticized the administration's actions, stating, “Despite the Governor signing a nine-month limit for migrants to stay in state-funded emergency housing, with options to extend, the influx of migrants to the Commonwealth continues unabated. In spite of her rhetoric, the Right to Shelter Law remains unchanged, ensuring that migrants are still legally guaranteed housing upon entering Massachusetts.”

Carnevale emphasized the disconnect between the administration's rhetoric and its actions. “The Healey-Driscoll Administration's words do not align with their actions. They can engage in rhetoric and publicity stunts all they want, but without concrete steps to limit access to emergency housing, nothing will change. To stop incentivizing migrants from coming to the Commonwealth, the Right to Shelter Law must be amended to restrict program access based on the duration of residency in the Commonwealth,” she asserted.

The team of officials sent by Healey is led by Emergency Assistance Incident Command Director General Scott Rice and includes the Emergency Assistance Incident Command Deputy Director, Pre-shelter Policy Lead for Incident Command, Executive Director of the MA Office of Refugees and Immigrants, and Strategy Manager at the Division of Housing Stabilization.