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| Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy at her inaugural address in January |
On August 31, in the midst of a migrant crisis that has strained the resources of Massachusetts to its limit, Governor Maura Healy has activated up to 250 National Guard members to assist in distributing food, medical care, and transportation along other basic needs at shelters and hotels.
Recently, Massachusetts has been overwhelmed by an influx of migrants, mainly composed of Haitians, with up to 20,000 people living in state shelters, including infants, pregnant women, and children. In early August, Governor Healy declared a state of emergency as a result of the increasing number of migrants, combined with the state's own housing crisis exacerbating the surge. Due to its status as a right-to-shelter state, Massachusetts is legally obligated to provide shelter to migrants via its emergency shelter services, a status that is now in jeopardy as conservative groups have called to revoke this policy.
Governor Healy had requested federal assistance for her state in dealing with the migrants, having already received $2 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and had also asked to expedite work authorizations for the migrants in her state, saying "Our new arrivals are most eager to work. The last thing they want is to be dependent." Now, the National Guard will coordinate the distribution of basic services while the state looks for a more permanent solution.
Locals have also stepped up to fill this gap, with churches like the Woburn United Methodist Church giving out donations such as clothing and toiletries. In the city of Quincy, the Eastern Nazarene College, working with the Bay State Community Services, opened a welcome center on campus for incoming families, with 58 spaces available as of August 22.
The topic of immigrations has become an increasingly hot button issue in the past decade, with many conservative and right-wing organizations and parties calling for higher restrictions on immigration. Republican controlled states, such as Florida and Texas, have even gone as far as to bus or fly immigrants to Democrat controlled states such as California and New York. Just last year Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, stranded 49 Venezuelan migrants in the Massachusetts enclave of Martha's Vineyard, an act that was widely condemned by many as cruel and exploitative. The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a conservative advocacy group, has begun calling on state lawmakers to end its right-to-shelter status, calling the state governor out of touch and unaware of the impact that the migrants have had on the state's cities and towns.
Many towns and cities have been taking the brunt of the migrant crisis, wishing for statal, or even federal intervention to assist in providing them shelter. Many welcomed the declaration of emergency, hoping for more assistance in the providing of services to the migrants. The state government is still working to secure more federal funding and to streamline the work permit process, with Governor Healy having met last week with US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in order to make a plea for accelerated work authorizations for the migrants.
It remains to see how this will turn out for Massachusetts, with the deployment of the National Guard being intended as a temporary measure to ensure the welfare of the migrants. According to State Senator Jaime Eldrige, "It's not only children, and with it getting soon cold, they're going to need winter jackets, things like that, and school supplies. But also many of the women here are pregnant." The one thing that is certain, however, is that this situation is simply a page in the chapter of the increasing issue the US is running into regarding migrants.
-Eric Gonzalez Jimenez
Sources:
Mass. welcomes new migrants, but worries about strained resources – NBC Boston
Governor activates Massachusetts National Guard to help with migrant crisis (msn.com)
3 comments:
When I first read your blog, I thought the migrants were mostly capable adults. I didn't realize that there were pregnant women and children. It's also interesting that Massachusetts is a right-to-shelter state, I didn't know that this was a thing. Upon further research, MA is the only state that has a right-to-shelter, with California and NY having other stipulations. Considering how liberal the state is, I'm not sure if the law can be changed, so these migrants will likely continue overwhelming the shelter system. According to Boston.com, just a few weeks ago, MA was in a state of emergency because of "the strain on the shelter system." What happens if there isn't enough room in these shelters? Are the migrants going to live on the streets, with some being children?
These National Guard members are going to be working a lot, haha. Each one will be a assigned to a shelter, helping coordinate basic needs and services, like transportation, and even enrolling children in school. What I found interesting, was that many of these migrants were arriving from other states to MA, why is that? How do the citizens feel about it?
https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2023/08/31/healey-activates-massachusetts-national-guard-to-help-with-migrant-crisis/
- Sean Lai
Wow, this is really interesting. Like Sean, I had no idea that a right-to-shelter state was a thing, much less that Massachusetts was the only one. I wonder how it is decided that a state becomes one, do they have to prove that they have enough capacity in their cities or something? Maybe they have to be below a certain cost of living -- certainly this could explain why California and New York do not qualify. Although I understand that the refugees are trying to escape from terrible conditions and have no other choice, I also sympathize with the locals who have to put up with the changes made by the state government. I think in order for such a policy to work effectively, the state government needs to prove that it is not just making these decisions from the capital without considering its local citizens. For instance, the state could allow cities to opt into the program, and incentivize them by providing federal benefits to cities that opt in. Of course, the best thing would be if the federal government could intervene and use federally reserved land, even if it is in another state, to shelter the refugees. However, this would be pretty hard to convince the federal government to do, especially if they need to do it in another state that may not agree with housing the refugees -- it may become a states' rights issue.
It looks like Massachusetts is a right-to-shelter state from a law the state passed a few decades ago. From Part I, Title II, Chapter 23B, Section 30: "the department shall administer a program of emergency housing assistance to needy families with children and pregnant woman with no other children." It's interesting that California and New York aren't right-to-shelter states as well, perhaps California's position as a border state and public opposition to homelessness in New York have something to do with it? Or it could just be that the states lack the money to provide shelter.
California does have a right-to-housing amendment in the legislature, so perhaps this will become an issue we will see here.
https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/right-to-housing-california-constitution/
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleII/Chapter23B/Section30
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