Shelters in Franklin, Milford to be Inspected After Armed Drug Dealer Found in Revere Site.

Gov. Maura Healey on Monday announced a review of shelter policy amid a barrage of questions over how a Dominican national -- who the feds say entered the country illegally -- came to be at a Revere family shelter with 10 pounds of lethal drugs and a large-capacity rifle.

The December arrest of 28-year-old Leonardo Andujar Sanchez was announced last week by the Revere Police Department, which said its officers and the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department recovered an estimated $1 million worth of fentanyl and "a loaded AR-15 with ammo" from a room at the Quality Inn in Revere.

"It's outrageous that this individual took advantage of our shelter system to engage in criminal activity," Healey said in a press statement on Monday. She added: "I've ordered an inspection of all shelter units, beginning with the Revere site, and a full review of our intake processes to determine any additional steps that we can take to prevent criminal activity in shelters."

GOP Outrage

Healey's statement came after members of the House Republican Caucus wrote to the governor earlier in the day about their "deep concerns and outrage" raised by last week's headlines out of Revere. The GOP lawmakers, led by Rep. Bradley Jones Jr., sent a copy of their letter to Housing Secretary Edward Augustus, whose office oversees the emergency assistance shelter system.

"How is it possible an undocumented immigrant here illegally is receiving a benefit of emergency family shelter," caucus members wrote to Healey, "even though our laws do not allow it? How is it this individual wasn't flagged in a so-called comprehensive background check upon application for shelter? How is it despite the strict gun laws of the Commonwealth this individual was allegedly able to acquire a high-capacity firearm? How was a criminal enterprise being run out of a family shelter as he allegedly obtained fentanyl and cocaine that he was allegedly selling from the shelter's motel room?"

Sen. Ryan Fattman put it as bluntly in an interview with the News Service on Monday: "What the hell is the vetting process? Who's looking at these people?"

Sanchez was arraigned last week in Chelsea District Court on trafficking in fentanyl and 10 firearm charges, according to Revere police.

Sanchez is a Dominican national who "unlawfully entered the U.S. on an unknown date at an unknown location sometime within the past year," according to Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston, a law enforcement directorate within ICE, which said it has filed an immigration detainer in his case.

Immigration detainers are aimed at criminal noncitizens, according to ERO Boston, and request that the local jurisdiction alert ICE before that person is released from custody.

"Mr. Andujar [Sanchez] has been accused of serious crimes, and ERO Boston takes its public safety mission very seriously — which is why we've lodged an immigration detainer against him with Revere police. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has charged him with possessing dangerous weapons and drug trafficking, and with the Revere Police Department's cooperation, we intend to take him into ICE custody upon his release," ERO Boston acting field office director Patricia Hyde said in a statement.

ERO Boston has complained in recent months of Massachusetts courts disregarding its immigration detainers.

The Supreme Judicial Court's 2017 Lunn ruling found that state law "provides no authority for Massachusetts court officers to arrest and hold an individual solely on the basis of a Federal civil immigration detainer." And the Trial Court's official policy for interacting with ICE says that people should not be processed or handled any differently because they are subject to a detainer.

That prompted Sen. Fattman, a Sutton Republican, to kick off Monday morning's Senate session with a floor speech decrying a lack of legislative followup on the seven-year-old Lunn decision.

"And since 2017 we have done nothing," Fattman said on the floor. "Nothing to change the standard, nothing to change this law. While some of us have tried, present company included, I'm telling you today that that attempt is going to continue."

House and Senate Republicans filed a Lunn response bill in October 2024, which they said would allow state courts to hold "convicted criminals and repeat offenders who have been subsequently arrested for additional crimes and who are subject to an immigration detainer by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." That bill died without action at the end of the term on New Year's Eve.

Fattman told the News Service that Republicans are working to file a "series" of relevant bills this term.

"Many of the people who are coming here through the Right To Shelter Law are good people. They're good families. They want to make a better life. But guess what? Criminals aren't stupid, and they know how to take advantage of laws, and they do it all the time. ... And they get a free place to stay while trafficking drugs out of a hotel room. I mean, it's outrageous. And it must end," Fattman said.

State Republican Party Chair Amy Carnevale also knocked Sanchez' alleged crimes at the family shelter.

"Why are long-term Massachusetts families left waiting for emergency housing while a criminal illegal immigrant is conducting a criminal enterprise from within state-funded housing? This amounts to state-funded crime," Carnevale said.

Healey said her administration was talking with local law enforcement and federal immigration officials about the Sanchez case, and pinned some of the blame on "federal inaction."

"This further underscores our broken federal immigration system and the urgent need for Congress and the White House to act on a border security bill to prevent criminals from entering our communities," Healey said.

Top Beacon Hill Democrats supported a border security bill last February that was endorsed by President Joseph Biden and featured major immigration reforms. Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey joined their Republican Senate counterparts in blocking the bill's advancement despite entreaties from Healey, Senate President Karen Spilka, and House Speaker Ronald Mariano.