In August, Governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency over increased migration to Massachusetts. More than 24,000 people are now living in state-funded shelters, hotels, dormitories, and emergency facilities in the state, and the Healey administration was concerned that these temporary dwelling units would soon be at capacity. In mid-October, Healey confirmed that the emergency shelter system would reach its limit by the end of the month and that Massachusetts would no longer be able to guarantee shelter for newly arriving migrants. In a statement, Healey’s office said Massachusetts does not have “enough space, service providers, or funds.”
The Healey administration had requested federal support earlier in the summer, and FEMA provided nearly $2 million for migrant housing and transportation in response. Healey has continued to call for the federal government to do more, but problems remain. This is unsurprising. The federal government has barely functioned for months. A protracted battle in the House of Representatives over the position of Speaker of the House (which halted legislative work) has finally come to an end with the election of Republican Mike Johnson, but Congress will be threatened with a government shutdown this month and must also contend with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The migrant crisis is simply one of many serious problems on a very long list.
The Biden Administration announced new actions in September to increase border enforcement and accelerate work authorizations, but Biden has repeatedly said that Congress needs to pass immigration reform to get to the roots of the problem. But what are these roots? Many more people are coming to the United States than in previous years, but why? The most recent surge in migration coincided with the May 2023 expiration of the Trump-era Title 42 program, which allowed for immediate deportation of people arriving at the southern border. Most of the families who are crossing the border now are fleeing violence and political crises in South American countries like Venezuela, although some immigrants are coming from Africa, China, and India as well. For all its problems, the US remains a desirable destination.
Massachusetts is also a desirable state in which to live. The only state in the country with a right-to-shelter law, it guarantees emergency housing to homeless families and pregnant women. But this month an emergency shelter waitlist will be established for the first time, meaning that the migrant families arriving in Massachusetts may be without accommodation for weeks or even months. The organization Lawyers for Civil Rights is suing the state over the waitlist, arguing that it is a violation of the right-to-shelter law. The state may be able to open “overflow housing” while long-term solutions are worked out, but still, a logistical problem is upon us. Accelerated work authorizations could allow newcomers to Massachusetts to enter the workforce more quickly, but housing in Massachusetts is incredibly expensive anyway – even more established residents who work full-time struggle to afford it.
Healey could invoke special powers as part of the state of emergency and override the right-to-shelter law for as long as the state of emergency is in place, which would delay the legal challenges she will be facing from Lawyers for Civil Rights. Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Marciano advised as much in a statement from his office on October 30. If the Massachusetts legislature does not approve Healey’s latest request for $250 million for the emergency shelter system, and if the federal government does not provide any more funding soon, her hand may be forced. Yet Healey continues to say that the migration crisis “is a federal problem. It demands a federal solution.” This is a ghostly prospect. The Biden Administration can continue to issue executive orders to secure the border and tweak the immigration system, but their tools are limited. A polarized Congress makes any sweeping reforms in the near future unlikely.
Massachusetts leaders therefore have to give up the hope that the federal cavalry is arriving anytime soon. They must also consider migration to the state over the longer term and begin planning for further crises. A report from Massachusetts Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer, released at the end of October, recommends policies to cope with increased climate migration. It identifies “climate-driven migration from other regions of the United States as well as migration from other areas of the world to the Northeast as an urgent concern with a major level of consequence.” The region is projected to receive significant migration over the next few decades from people fleeing extreme weather, such as heatwaves, floods, droughts, and resource scarcity. Massachusetts was clearly unprepared for the exponential increase in migration over just the last few months. The prospect of another migration crisis is on the horizon.
A journalist once asked Harold Macmillan, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963, what would most influence the course of his administration. He supposedly responded, “Events, my dear boy, events.” The events of the next month will be determining factors for our political leaders. The federal government may be unable to avoid a shutdown, and war in the Middle East may expand – which, of course, could create the conditions for an influx of new refugees from war-torn regions. No doubt unforeseen and unpredictable events will also occur. There is little anyone can do to control these kinds of events, but we can prepare for them. Politics has the potential to be the art of developing systems which are resilient to “events, my dear boy” – but politicians often sleepwalk into crises they have ignored or imagined they could avoid. The problems around migration in Massachusetts will continue, and may grow worse in the coming months and years. We must urge our leaders to act quickly now, and to work on coping with even greater problems in the future.
