Democratic Lawmakers Joining Calls for Governor to Take Action

With state resources continuing to stretch beyond their limits, the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is again calling on Governor Maura Healey to stop playing politics and address the realities of President Biden’s failed immigration policy.

“For so long, left-wing Massachusetts lawmakers were able to advocate for open borders and unlimited illegal immigration because, with almost 2500 miles between them and the open border, it had no effect on them or their constituencies. Unfortunately, the crisis is now so dire that even Massachusetts is feeling the pressure on the opposite side of the country,” noted Paul D. Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“Instead of actually addressing the root cause of the problem, which is a failure of Democrat’s immigration and border policies, Governor Healey is simply play-acting at a response. She’s declared a state of emergency, but has taken no emergency actions with the declaration. She’s mobilized the national guard, but refuses to deploy them to assist at the border. The crisis in Massachusetts is a crisis of capacity. There simply aren’t enough places to house all of these people and no amount of soldiers are going to fix that issue if they’re staying here in the Commonwealth,” noted Craney.

As thousands of new arrivals appear in cities and towns across the state with no warning or plan, even members of Governor Healey’s own party have joined the call for her to get serious about the issue. In a letter delivered on Monday, the House chair of the Joint Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Management, Rep. William Driscoll Jr., called Healey’s response to the crisis “chaotic” and noted that, “A state of emergency has been declared yet the structure and cadence of the response underway is not recognizable to many with a lifetime of emergency management experience and expertise.”

Driscoll was joined in his criticism of the state’s response by Democratic Mayor of Woburn Scott Galvin, who in an interview with the New York Times noted that the state’s 40 year old right to shelter law was passed at a different time in our history and was quoted saying, “We’re going above and beyond, while some communities around us are not being impacted, and we don’t have endless capacity in our schools. The benefits that are bestowed on migrants make the state a very attractive destination, and without some changes, this challenge is not going to abate.”

“This issue is only going to get much, much worse given the current response. It’s time for Governor Healey to stop the political theater and take meaningful action that will address this crisis where it is happening—at our country's unsecured southern border,” closed Craney.