BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is dispatching members of her administration to the U.S.-Mexico border in an effort to dissuade asylum seekers from coming to the state amid an ongoing surge of immigration.
The Healey administration announced Tuesday that a state delegation is headed to the southern border to meet with officials from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Joint Task Force-North, relocation agencies and families “to educate them about the lack of shelter availability.”
Retired Gen. Scott Rice, the state’s emergency assistance director, said the purpose of the trip is “to meet with families arriving in the U.S. and the organizations that work with them at the border to make sure they have accurate information about the lack of shelter space in Massachusetts.”
“It is essential that we get the word out that our shelters are full so that families can plan accordingly to make sure they have a safe place to go,” he said in a statement.
The delegation, which includes state emergency management officials and representatives from refugee organizations, is expected to visit several Texas communities along the border this week, including San Antonio, Hidalgo, McAllen and Brownsville, according to the Healey administration.
Those border communities have been identified as the primary waypoints for migrants heading to Massachusetts after entering the country.
The move comes as the state continues to see an influx of migrants that has pushed its emergency shelter system to the brink of collapse.
Healey declared a state of emergency last August and deployed the National Guard to help deal with the influx. Her administration also set a 7,500-family cap on the number of people eligible for emergency housing in October. Hundreds of families are currently on a waiting list for housing.
The governor signed a bill limiting migrants to nine months in emergency shelter, with up to two 90-day extensions for veterans, pregnant women and those in work training programs. The first round of eviction notices, covering 150 families, are set to go out in the next week, officials said.
The bill also pumped an additional $251 million into the shelter system to cover housing, food and other costs. The state expects to spend about $1 billion this year on migrants. Pleas from state leaders for additional federal funds from the Biden administration have gone largely unanswered.
Republicans and conservative groups have long argued that the state’s right-to-shelter law — which requires it to offer temporary housing regardless of immigration status — is drawing migrants here. They have pressed Healey to suspend the law, set residency requirements or significantly scale back its provisions.
Amy Carnevale, chairwoman of the state Republican Party, called Healey’s move to dispatch officials to the southern border a “publicity stunt” that won’t reduce the influx of migrants. Carnevale said there’s a “disconnect” between Healey’s words and actions, and because of “political pride and partisanship” she refuses to take the “necessary steps” to solve the roots of the migrant crisis.
“They can engage in rhetoric and publicity stunts all they want, but without concrete steps to limit access to emergency housing, nothing will change,” Carnevale said in a statement. “To stop incentivizing migrants from coming to the commonwealth, the right to shelter law must be amended to restrict program access based on the duration of residency in the commonwealth.”
Paul Craney, a spokesman for the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said Healey’s decision to send a delegation of “midlevel bureaucrats on a field trip instead of going herself will not solve the problem.”
“If the governor wants to send a message, the best way to do that is simply by removing the state’s very generous right to shelter law and welfare benefits to nonresidents,” Craney said.
The Healey administration contends that workforce development and rehousing programs have resulted in a “steady increase” in families leaving the shelter system. About 3,700 individuals in shelters have qualified for federal work authorization, the administration said, with 1,114 placed in jobs.
But the decision to dispatch a delegation to the border to dissuade migrants from heading to Massachusetts shows the influx of new arrivals is continuing to stress the state’s emergency shelter system.
The tactic is similar to one used by New York City Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration distributed flyers at the U.S.-Mexico border last July telling newly arrived migrants to “consider another city” because there is “no guarantee we will be able to provide shelter and services to new arrivals.”
New York is required to provide shelter for those without homes, regardless of their immigration status, under a decades-old consent decree stemming from a class-action lawsuit. The city has seen an influx of more than 180,000 migrants over the past year, with about 65,000 under its care.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at [email protected].
By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter
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