Gov. Maura Healey provided a uncommon nod of approval to President Donald Trump’s immigration insurance policies Tuesday, saying “some” of the choices the Republican made this 12 months to limit entry for migrants making an attempt to enter the U.S. on the border make “a lot of sense.”
Massachusetts skilled a surge in migrant arrivals over the previous two years that positioned a pressure on state-run emergency shelters. However shelter caseloads began to say no over the winter after a sequence of latest guidelines imposed by the Trump, Biden, and Healey administrations took impact.
After an unrelated occasion on the State Home on Tuesday, Healey mentioned she had instructed Biden that he wanted to behave on the border and “shut it down two years ago, three years ago now.”
“I think that some of what Donald Trump has done on the border makes a lot of sense,” Healey instructed reporters. “I won’t get into specifics, but the general move and recognition that there needed to be more control brought to the border is absolutely correct. And certain things have been done that make a lot of sense.”
Trump has overseen a broad crackdown on immigration into the U.S.
His insurance policies have suspended the asylum system, compelled some migrants to attend in Mexico whereas their immigration instances play out, and stripped authorized protections for lots of of 1000’s of Venezuelans.
His administration additionally emboldened U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold out deportations all throughout the nation, together with a number of which have resulted in high-profile authorized challenges just like the case of Tufts College graduate scholar Rumeysa Ozturk.
Critics, together with Healey, have slammed a few of Trump’s insurance policies and deportation instances as inhumane and overreaches of governmental powers.
And regardless that Healey mentioned she agreed with a number of the president’s strikes, she made clear that there “are certain things that the Trump administration is doing now that don’t make sense.”
“Nobody in this country should have ICE come into their home or into a place of work without due process rights, right? And I think that that’s a real problem right now. They’ve just gone too far in terms of the issue of immigration, and that’s creating incredible fear and community and causing a lot of heartache and anxiety,” mentioned the first-term Democrat from Arlington.
Healey and different Democratic lawmakers on Beacon Hill have carried out their very own far-reaching restrictions on the state-run shelter system that was arrange many years in the past to deal with homeless households with youngsters and pregnant ladies.
These cutbacks included cut-off dates on households’ stays, necessities that shelter residents present proof that they’re lawful within the nation, and strict compliance measures to make sure households had been working towards steady housing.
The foundations got here after shelters peaked at greater than 7,600 households in July 2024, a degree that pushed the system to a breaking level and led lawmakers to spend lots of of thousands and thousands in taxpayer {dollars} to cowl huge prices.
Healey touted the consequences of these insurance policies Monday.
Her administration mentioned the variety of households in shelter is anticipated to drop under 4,000 “this summer” as officers moved to shut all the expensive inns and motels serving as momentary housing websites.
The governor mentioned she was “really pleased” concerning the reforms and making a “better system for families and for dealing with the issue of housing in the state.”
“But I just want to say it’s also why we need to continue to build housing,” she mentioned. “Because people struggle with affording rent, affording housing. And I think the top priority out of this administration, after cutting taxes, was building more housing.”
