Mass. Gov. to Roxbury: Migrants matter more

February 25, 2024

By Matt O’Brien

It finally occurred to the managerially gifted civil servants over at MassPort that Logan Airport already has enough problems. Therefore, travelers might be a bit peeved at having to trip over the Biden Administration’s illegal immigrants, who have been using the terminal floors as a makeshift Motel 6. So, what is a state functionary in a tangled web of bureaucracy to do when confronted by a logistical crisis? Stick it to the American voter/taxpayer, of course.

Apparently, some administrative genius somewhere in the parliamentary apparatus of the Bay State suggested to Governor Healey that it might be a good idea to evict some grannies and young’uns from a local recreational facility and transfer the migrants there. And, lo and behold, Roxbury’s Melnea A. Cass Recreation Center – which is run by the Commonwealth’s Division of Conservation and Recreation – has been ordered shut down. Now instead of providing a variety of social services, and a safe haven for at-risk youth, it’s used to house recently arrived foreigners, many of whom have lodged bogus asylum claims.

That’s right, once again the Chief Executive of an American state has placed the well-being of foreign nationals above the interests of the U.S. citizens she swore an oath to protect. And those citizens are understandably ticked off. Of course, Governor Healey insisted that the move was “only temporary” and was made “because we really don’t have a choice.”

It remains to be seen how temporary the arrangement is. It also remains to be seen whether the migrants who now grace Roxbury with their presence will turn out to be as rambunctious as those who have taken up residence in the Big Apple.

But one thing is certain. The governor is lying when she says she didn’t have any other choice. In fact, she could have insisted that the Biden Administration enforce the immigration laws currently on the books and send the migrants back to the countries they came from. Presumably, they have homes there. If they don’t, then it is the responsibility of their own governments to provide them with shelter. But it sure as heck isn’t the responsibility of working-class Bostonians to solve the issue by giving up resources that their tax dollars paid for. But that doesn’t seem to have occurred to Gov. Healey.

And why are the migrants being shuffled off to neighborhoods like Roxbury in the first place? Well, we’ve all seen what happens when migrants arrive in places like Martha’s Vineyard. They get a free lobster roll in the basement of one of the local churches. That virtue-signaling photo-op is immediately followed by a donation of gently used Vineyard Vines castoffs – and a free ticket back to Cape Cod, lest the newly-arrived underclass muddy up the Norman Rockwell scenery.

All of the foregoing is inevitably accompanied by strained acts of political theater where the local politicos claim that they truly do support the notion of immigrant sanctuaries. Shortly after the Vineyard unceremoniously told the migrants to take a hike, CNN actually ran an article quoting a volunteer with a local nonprofit who claimed that, after a mere 44 hours, their presence had “enriched” the community.

He should spend a month in Eagle Pass, Texas, encountering 10,000 migrants a day. Nevertheless, it was still made clear that, despite the high level of enrichment that the illegal immigrants allegedly brought to the community, they would probably do much better across the Bay where the soup kitchens and homeless shelters cater to the actual poor, not just the chronically underpaid laborers who make up what locals call “the Island’s workforce.”

Meanwhile, the working stiffs who inhabit neighborhoods like Roxbury, Mattapan, Mission Hill, Dorchester and East Boston are too busy trying to make rent and put food on the table. That means they don’t typically make six figure donations to political campaigns. So, when they try to contact Healey and ask that the migrants be housed somewhere else, Healey is comfortable ignoring their pleas.

In 1981 Ronald Reagan wisely noted, “Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not ruin their lives.” Quite clearly, when it comes to the massive wave of migrants invading America’s cities and towns, everybody from the current administration to Maura Healey has failed to heed the Gipper’s sage advice. And, they seem bound and determined to protect foreigners with no pre-existing connection to the United States while ruining the lives of the U.S. citizens.

Matt O’Brien is the Director of Investigations at the Immigration Reform Law Institute and the co-host of IRLI’s podcast “No Border, No Country.” Immediately prior to working for IRLI he served as an immigration judge. He has nearly 30 years of experience in immigration law and policy, having held numerous positions within the Department of Homeland Security.

Also published at The Boston Herald, February 25, 2024.