Despite its great history, despite its stellar sports franchises and natural wonders, Massachusetts long has been known as a cesspool of leftist political parasitism.
From a Boston city administrator pushing for “gender equality snow-plowing” in January of 2022, to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) demanding that all city-connected construction be “carbon neutral” (enjoy trying to define, itemize, and quantify that, Michelle), to former RINO Governor Charlie Baker (whom Joe Biden called “Charlie Parker,” evidently mistaking him for the long-dead jazz musician) flipping from claiming he opposed digital jab passports and mandates, to the opposite, and actually having the government connect with a company that developed jab passports – it’s been a state that long ago discarded its libertarian heritage.
The most recent example of the “Bay State” trouble that other Americans might have noticed centers on the utterly laughable – and very dark – manner in which Massachusetts politicians, especially Boston Mayor Wu and Governor Maura Healey (D) have simultaneously asked for more foreign migrants to move to the state, complained about being overwhelmed, housed migrants in hotels (even hotels that had been booked by customers near the stadium where last year’s Army-Navy football game was played), and DEMANDED that other Americans pay for their insane schemes.
And now, Healey has offered us the latest bait-and-switch.
One of the big thorns in the side of Boston talk radio hosts and listeners has been the government’s “housing” of migrants in the already hassle-prone Logan International Airport. Despite all the infringements of the Bill of Rights in which the federal Transportation Security (a term quite loosely applied) Agency (TSA) engages on a daily basis, somehow, magically, the Massachusetts political hierarchy has thought it a completely consistent and valuable move to have hundreds of migrants live there, sleeping on air mattresses and cots in terminals and baggage claim areas. And when observers have noted how disastrous the policy has been, the Governor has engaged in a shell game, simply moving one group out of Logan into a new “shelter,” such as a kid’s indoor activity center in one of the poorest areas of Boston, and then…
...replacing the first Logan group with another.
Well, guess what? This time - this time, believe her - Healey has really, really, really removed the tax-subsidized migrants from Logan.
And she’s moved them into new, tax-subsidized digs.
Sarah Arnold reports for TownHall:
“On Friday, Gov. Maura Healey (D-Mass.) told the more than 100 illegal aliens sleeping on the floor of the airport to pack their bags and get out.
Dozens of makeshift beds and air mattresses have lined terminals of the Boston Airport as legal, paid travelers are forced to step around them to get to their gate. A representative from Massport told Boston 25 Local News that illegal aliens are arriving at the airport at all hours— a sharp rise in the number of immigrants sheltering at the airport in recent months.”
Thank goodness the TSA sponges our money to keep us “safe.”
And, thank goodness Healey is ending that free ride for the visitors.
Related: DHS Increases Paroles for Migrants: Impact on US Immigration Laws
Of course, they’re not “visitors.” They are moving to the U.S. So, regardless of one’s position on migration, one can ask, “When was the last, or first, time you had YOUR move to a new locale subsidized by taxpayers?”
This time, Healey isn’t going to push the migrants into what used to be a tax-funded activity center in Roxbury, and she’s not sending them to newly tax-subsidized hotels near Gillette Stadium,
This time, she’s going to send them for a former detention facility.
“On July 9, the illegal immigrants stay (at Logan) will come to an end. However, hard-working taxpayers will fund alternative accommodations for them at a former minimum-security dorm-like facility in Norfolk.”
How wonderful. This politically created-chaos has seen people from many areas of the world become enticed to move here, has seen taxpayers forced to pay for many of the migrants' expenses (or else they will be prosecuted for tax evasion and might end up in prison), and has seen the Massachusetts Governor complain that she wasn’t getting enough federally-washed tax cash to give the migrants things like free health care and legal advice, and now, the government will continue to use taxpayer cash to repurpose a place designed to jail criminals.
Given the not-so-good trend in violent crime in Massachusetts, perhaps Bay State taxpayers who expect government to stop bad guys and to lock them up so they don’t hurt more might think this Norfolk facility would better be employed to house criminals – you know, people who want to hurt them and rob them.
Ahh, but the government engages in legalized plunder every day, and if folks refuse to pay the government mafia, the government can hurt them.
And, curiously, this tax-thievery is not only not questioned by many Massachusetts voters, it’s promoted as the height of “evolved American society.”
One of the sticking points for Massachusetts politicians has been Healey’s endless double-talk, in which she simultaneously promotes the idea of “sanctuary” for migrants, while complaining about the expense.
In fact, some of those MA politicians have cited the Biden Administration’s so-called “Humanitarian Parole Program” (the one exposed by the Center for Immigration Studies as being an easy way the feds have allowed migrants into the country, given them a nearly endless welcome without any risk of deportation, and even given them phone apps to let them fly almost anywhere in the contiguous US) for supposedly requiring migrants who want to enter via the program to get “sponsors” who will cover their costs. As Gayla Cawley reports for the Boston Herald, MA State Senator Michael Moore (D) has publicly called out the Healy Administration and Biden, as well:
“Established by the Biden Administration in January 2023, the Humanitarian Parole Program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans provides pathways for up to 30,000 nationals from those countries to live and work lawfully in the United States for two years. In exchange, the applicants are required to obtain a financial sponsor to pay for their housing, basic necessities, paperwork, health care and schooling, Moore’s office said.”
Strangely, there’s nothing in the U.S. Constitution that allows Biden or anyone else to start such a program.
And there’s nothing in the U.S. Constitution that lets Healey demand federally-grabbed tax money to handle what, constitutionally, is a Massachusetts government issue.
If private parties want to sponsor folks to move to their homes, to work with them, or anything else that does not require another person to shell out cash, they should be free to do so.
And, as I have noted, the U.S. Constitution leaves the matter of immigration policy in the hands of the states. If Maura Healey bothered to abide by it, she would stop demanding that we subsidize her government for the errors it is making.
And, regardless of one’s position on immigration, at least more Americans could acknowledge that it’s wrong for government to subsidize anyone’s move.