Boston Site Housing Illegal Immigrants Nearly Full a Week After Opening: Mayor Wu

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu as seen in a Sept. 2021 file photo. Scott Eisen/Getty Images

An overflow site for illegal immigrants at a Roxbury recreation center in Boston is already reaching full capacity just more than a week after it first opened, according to the city’s mayor, Michelle Wu.

Ms. Wu made the remarks on the podcast “Java with Jimmy” on Feb. 7, noting that the 400-person capacity at the state-owned Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex in the city’s Roxbury neighborhood is filling up faster than initially anticipated.

The Democrat told host James “Jimmy” Hills that most of the illegal immigrants brought into the center had previously been sleeping at Logan International Airport. More families were moved to the center over the weekend, she said.

The mayor said she visited the center on Feb. 6 and spoke with immigrants and staff members to “see how things are going” at the newly opened overflow site.

“Yesterday, when I was doing a walkthrough I met some families who had most recently been in a hotel in Revere. So there’s a little bit of shuffling around,” Ms. Wu said. The mayor noted that many of the children in the complex are currently waiting to be enrolled in schools.

Roughly 75 illegal immigrant children were registered with the Boston Public Schools the first weekend that the Roxbury site was opened, she said.

They will be in “cohorts” together aimed at having the same networks, support, and “extra dedicated resources around multilingual learning,” according to Ms. Wu.

Housing Only Temporary

“The first batch of those young people actually should be in school right now, they started today and then some of the newer young people who arrived will get registered as they get settled with case workers,” she said.

The mayor later stressed that the overflow site is only a temporary operation.

“This whole situation is a temporary spot,” Ms. Wu said. “I think the state heard loud and clear that the pool is necessary for the community, for all the multigenerational activity that happens in the neighborhood.”

Residents of Roxbury were informed earlier this month that the recreational complex would be converted into a temporary housing space for illegal immigrants. In the meantime, the center will be closed off to the public.

The complex is located in a traditionally marginalized and black neighborhood and is named after local civil rights champion Melnea Cass.

This undated photo shows some of the people housed at Boston Logan International Airport. Alice Giordano/The Epoch Times

Overflow Site Sparks Protests

The decision, coming as the city experiences a widespread homelessness crisis, sparked protests, with some of those involved clashing with police.

Amid a growing backlash, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has promised that the center will only be used to temporarily house illegal immigrants until May 31.

The Democratic governor has also claimed that the state’s right-to-shelter law is the reason officials continue to provide housing for illegal immigrants who arrive in Massachusetts.

“We’re here because we have no choice,” Ms. Healey said while touring the facility earlier this month.

During the podcast on Feb. 7, Mayor Wu acknowledged to Mr. Hills that displacing some of the recreational programs from the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex to make room for the immigrants wasn’t an “ideal” situation.

She noted that city officials had worked hard to identify alternative buildings for use as overflow sites for illegal immigrants. However, the Melnea Cass Center, already fully equipped with showers and bathroom facilities, emerged as the best option.

“This is not a problem about migrant families, this is a problem about housing that we had before anyone came, [a problem] that we have across every community,” Ms. Wu said.

Alice Giordano contributed to this report.