(HorizonPost.com) – The Democrat governor of Massachusetts, who during the 2022 campaign expressed her support for Massachusetts becoming a sanctuary state, declared a state of emergency last week due to the surge in illegal aliens, the Associated Press reported.
In a press conference last Tuesday, Governor Maura Healey, over 5,600, many of them illegal migrants, are being housed in state-run shelters, an 80 percent increase from last year. In total, shelters are housing more than 20,000 people, a number Healey described as “unsustainable.”
Because Massachusetts has a “right to shelter” law, its emergency assistance program is legally required to provide illegals shelter. The governor decried the number of “migrants” who have arrived in Massachusetts by plane from other states and noted that in the previous 48 hours, fifty families arrived looking for shelter.
In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the governor asked for financial assistance and called on DHS to expedite work permits to allow the migrants to find jobs and earn a living, arguing that the lack of work permits is fueling the crisis at shelters.
In her emergency declaration, Healey called on community organizations to assist in housing migrants and asked Massachusetts residents to sponsor a migrant family in their homes.
The governor also launched a migrant relief fund to raise money to help migrants pay for clothing, food, diapers, and transportation while providing services like legal assistance, health screenings, and English classes.
Paul Diego Craney of the conservative group Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance called on the governor and legislature to revoke the state’s “right to shelter” law. Craney suggested in a statement that Governor Healey should visit the southern border so she could “see firsthand” the crisis caused by the open border. In announcing the state of emergency, Healey reaffirmed her support for the “right to shelter” law which was enacted in 1983, according to WBUR.
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