Massachusetts calls up national guard to cope with migrants as protests rage
By Ronny Reyes Published Sep. 3, 2023 Updated Sep. 3, 2023, 10:25 p.m. ET
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Massachusetts officials overwhelmed by arriving migrants have activated the national guard as they scramble for more housing, while aid groups say they have been pushed to the limit and protests abound.
Gov. Maura Healey mobilized 250 members of the Massachusetts National Guard on Thursday to help transport the latest wave of asylum seekers to shelters across the state.
But much like the crisis overtaking the Big Apple, Massachusetts has nowhere near enough housing or resources currently available to accommodate the influx.
“Right now, the non-profits that are in Massachusetts are stretched and so thin they cannot provide anymore staff,” state Sen. Jamie Eldridge told CBS News.
While the National Guard can help with the lack of manpower, the state can do little to address the shortage of housing outside of creating new shelters, which local residents vehemently oppose.
Dozens of protesters came out Saturday to the Yarmouth Resort motel, where the state hopes to set aside 100 units for migrant families, many of whom include Haitian immigrants displaced by natural disasters.
The protesters claimed that the state has prioritized the need of the migrants over the need of its own homeless residents, including veterans, with many at the rally flashing signs that read, “Vets and Cape Homeless First!!”
The hotel in Yarmouth is just one of more than 1,500 temporary hotels and new shelters set up across the state since 2022.
The state’s Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said in a statement, “The administration is exploring all options to expand family shelter capacity to meet rising demand.”
All together, there are about 6,000 families, or more than 20,000 people, currently residing in state shelters, officials estimate.
The situation in Massachusetts is mirroring the year-long struggle in New York City to house the tens of thousands of migrants that have arrived there.
Last week, at least 400 people gathered in Staten Island to protest the transformation of a shuttered Catholic school into a 300-bed makeshift shelter.
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Over the past year, more than 104,000 migrants from the US border have been shipped to the five boroughs, and nearly 56,000 are now being housed by the city.
The unprecedented influx spilled out onto the streets of Manhattan last month as scores of migrants were forced to sleep outside the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown, which was set up as a processing center.