Gov. Maura Healey warns state 'reaching capacity' as hundreds of migrants shelter at airport
Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey has warned that the state cannot accommodate any more illegal migrants and called on the federal government to take action as shelters meant to accommodate homeless residents have been overwhelmed. Airports across the U.S. have also been used to house those who've been allowed entry under the Biden administration's border policies.
Dozens of illegal migrants have been sleeping on the floor at Terminal E at the Logan Airport in Boston. The airport has provided staff fluent in Haitian Creole and Spanish to communicate with migrants and is working with the state to transport them to welcome centers.
Photos of migrants sleeping at the airport terminal were shared by CBSNews. Other states, including Texas, Arizona, Illinois and New York, have also been using airports to house illegal migrants.
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“We continue to see migrants at the airport on a daily basis,” Massport spokesperson Jennifer Mehigan told The Boston Herald. “They come to Logan a number of ways — some fly in, but the majority do not. They also arrive at Logan at all hours.”
According to Mehigan, the airport could not provide an estimate of the number of migrants sheltering at the international terminal. In a statement to CBSNews, Keturah Douze, a Medford woman who's reportedly been in contact with some of the migrants, estimated there are around 100 people at the airport.
As The Boston Herald previously reported in November, the state’s shelter system maxed out at 7,500 families, and many adults and children were put on a waitlist.
Regarding the situation at the airport, Healey said during a Monday press conference that migrants sleeping at the terminal is evidence that the state is reaching capacity to house illegal immigrants.
“The bottom line here is that we really are reaching, have reached capacity,” Healey said. … “I just continue to express in the strongest terms possible, that’s why we need action at the federal government. This is not a problem that Massachusetts created. However, it’s a problem that we’re having to deal with right now.”
In an affluent suburb of Chicago, a city councilman has pitched the idea of asking residents to volunteer to house migrants in their homes as that region also says the influx of migrants under the Biden administration is untenable.
“We do have a very affluent community, a lot of big homes, and what I'd like to do is direct staff to create a sign-up sheet ... for individuals that would be willing to house migrant families, and, if there's people that would do that, God bless them,” Naperville Councilman Josh McBroom said at a recent council meeting, according to The Gazette.
As Massachusetts and other states grapple with the issues that result from mass illegal immigration, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott accused the Biden administration in a statement of failing to fulfill its “constitutional duty” to enforce federal laws.
"The Executive Branch of the United States has a constitutional duty to enforce federal laws protecting States, including immigration laws on the books right now," the statement reads. "President Biden has instructed his agencies to ignore federal statutes that mandate the detention of illegal immigrants. The failure of the Biden Administration to fulfill the duties imposed by Article IV, § 4 has triggered Article I, § 10, Clause 3, which reserves to this State the right of self-defense,” the Texas governor continued.
“For these reasons, I have already declared an invasion under Article I, § 10, Clause 3 to invoke Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself. That authority is the supreme law of the land and supersedes any federal statutes to the contrary."
As Fox News reported this week, border patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, stumbled upon two instances of human smuggling, with the agents discovering at least 40 illegal migrants stuffed inside of vehicles.
El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Anthony Good posted the images on X Monday. One of the images showed over 10 men crammed into the back of a pickup truck. Another photo Good shared online Tuesday showed 16 migrants crammed into an SUV.
In a statement to Fox News, sources with Customs and Border Protection told the outlet that more than 302,000 illegal migrants were documented attempting to cross the U.S. southern border between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31, 2023.
In the first 2.5 years of the Biden administration, there was more than 5 million border apprehensions and over 1 million people evaded Border Patrol.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
