Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency on Tuesday over the growing number of illegal immigrants seeking shelter in her northeastern state.
According to the governor’s office, there are nearly 5,600 families – or more than 20,000 individuals – in Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system, including pregnant women and children.
“State employees and our partners have been miracle workers throughout this crisis – going above and beyond to support families and using every tool at their disposal to expand shelter capacity by nearly 80 percent in the last year. But 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,” Healey said in a statement.
“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,” she continued.
“Many of the new arrivals to our state desperately want to work, and we have historic workforce demands across all industries. I am also calling on all of our partners – from cities and towns to the faith community, philanthropic organizations, and human service providers – to rise to this challenge and do whatever you can to help us meet this moment.”
A federal judge recently disclosed that 40% of illegal immigrants apprehended and later released under the Biden administration’s “parole” program did not appear at court.
According to The Washington Times, while more than 40% of these migrants never checked in at all, only 464 out of 1,507 who did check-in were issued a notice to appear, resulting in 82% of the parolees not being entered into the immigration court docket.
This was a breaking news story. The details were periodically updated as more information became available.
