ROCKLAND, Mass.—Massachusetts Sen. Peter Durant believes that nonstop illegal immigration to the Bay State combined with a net outflow of tax revenue is a “recipe for disaster.”
Each year, he said, approximately 50,000 taxpaying residents flee Massachusetts for less expensive states, followed by a daily influx of “tax-taking” illegal immigrants.
“What’s the purpose of bringing all these people in?” said Mr. Durant, a Republican who wants to amend or scrap the state’s “right-to-shelter” law that allows families in the state illegally to settle at taxpayer expense.
“I don’t think they [the state government] want the public to understand what they’re doing. The way I see it, they’re intentionally obfuscating about the whole issue here,” Mr. Durant said.
Mr. Durant said the current estimate is that it will cost Massachusetts taxpayers $2 billion to support illegal immigrants over the next two years.
The so-called “newcomers” arrive by bus, train, and commuter jet airliner, many accompanied by children or pregnant women.
“Every night, they’re sleeping on the floor” at Logan International Airport in Boston, Mr. Durant said.
“Every day, they move out—I’m not really sure where they go—only to be replaced by more at night coming from a different place.”
“Who’s directing this?”
Meanwhile, the senator said this year will cost around $1 billion to cover the basic needs of thousands of illegal immigrants.
“A billion a year is going toward housing, food, buying laptops—everything. The benefits go on and on. What they don’t count are the ancillary costs like health care, education, things of that nature,” he said.
The governor’s budget recommendation for Fiscal 2026 includes a level-funded $325 million for the state’s emergency shelter system.
On Aug. 8, 2023, Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency over the worsening illegal immigration crisis in Massachusetts.
In a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, Ms. Healey said many of the newly arriving “migrants and refugees” are living within the state “but without the means to secure safe shelter in our communities.
“Many of these families are migrants to Massachusetts, drawn here because we are and proudly have been a beacon to those in need,” Gov. Healey wrote.
“The families require help to obtain housing, food, medical care, education, diapers, and infant formula. Some are fleeing imminent threats of violence.
“They all have one thing in common. They are in danger of going without the most basic human rights in one of the most prosperous places on Earth: the ability to lay their heads down in a safe place every night with a roof over their heads and with access to fundamental human necessities.”
Mr. Durant said he struggles to see the net benefit of illegal immigration compared to the mounting cost of their support and resettlement.
Asked what skill sets many of them bring, he said, “I don’t know if I can even remotely answer that question. I think, theoretically, some people could do some [skilled] work.”
“We’re losing 1,100 [residents] per week due to high taxes,” Mr. Durant said. “We’re losing massive amounts of people. They’re replacing those outflows [with illegal immigrants] so we don’t lose congressional seats.
“The problem is, when you replace 50,000 net taxpayers with 50,000 net tax-takers, it doesn’t take long to see how that’s going to impact you in a bad way financially.”
The same crisis has been playing out in other Democrat-controlled sanctuary cities and states across the country.
In Colorado, Denver city officials are calling on residents to open their homes to illegal immigrants, given limited resources and emergency shelters.
When Gov. Healey declared a state of emergency over illegal immigration in Massachusetts, there were more than 5,500 families, children, and pregnant women living in emergency shelters.
In March 2024, there were 7,530 families on the state’s Emergency Assistance Placement Data Dashboard.
Mr. Durant said these figures may not accurately reflect the number of illegals arriving and living in Massachusetts, and “they keep coming.”
To cope with the influx, the governor’s office has signed two-year contracts with 76 hotels and motels to serve as temporary “overflow” shelters.
“It’s a great business for the hotels and motels because she’s actually paying more for the hotels,” Mr. Durant said.
He said it’s not a good deal for paying customers and the state’s tourism economy in general.
“Massachusetts is a vacation state. As you start filling up these hotels, all of a sudden, the tourists aren’t finding spaces. The cost for hotels go up because they’re in shorter supply,” Mr. Durant said.
The 41-year-old right-to-shelter law, enacted in 1983, guarantees shelter to homeless families and women with children fleeing domestic abuse.
“That was the intent,” Mr. Durant said. “And it was a clear intent of the law.”
However, he said the Democrat establishment in Massachusetts has reinterpreted the law to include not just U.S. citizens but illegal immigrant families as well.
“So, obviously, at this point, that’s what they’re hanging their hats on. Everybody in the shelter system is a family,” he said.
“It’s just to say we need to put these people up, [that] we have no choice, and there’s nothing we can do about it. What I say repeatedly is we can amend the law.”
Mr. Durant recently proposed reducing the $64 daily meal voucher allowed to each illegal migrant and “ancillary services,” such as laundry, to reduce program costs.
He would also like to see background checks and biometrics on illegal migrants seeking emergency shelter to ensure community safety.
“What they’re doing is [the state] is starting to [take] public facilities. They just took the Melnea Cass Recreation Center,” Mr. Durant said.
The center in Roxbury, Massachusetts, recently announced it will reopen to the public on June 22. During the past year, it provided temporary shelter for 450 illegal migrants and their families.
Mr. Durant said Massachusetts’ state-run shelter program often takes place out of public view.
“The governor will cite privacy rules. That’s a red herring, but that’s what they'll do,” he said, and residents, including military veterans, are paying the price of being denied access to these facilities.
Last October, 70 military families booked rooms to watch the Army-Navy football game in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The hotel canceled their reservations to make way for illegal migrants under the state’s right-to-shelter law.
“It makes me feel angry. It makes me feel like we shouldn’t have to feel angry about migrants,” Mr. Durant said.
In April, the Massachusetts Legislature defeated 129–27, an amendment to a bill that would have given priority to military veterans seeking shelter assistance over illegal immigrants.
Mr. Durant said the legislature will likely vote on a supplemental budget in January 2025 if and when shelter program funds run out this year.
“In this year’s budget, all we’re doing is funding it through December at a level-funded amount,” he said.
“We all know for a fact that it’s not going to be enough.
“What we see is a shell game. Let’s move some money around and try to figure this out,” he said.
The state recently announced plans to house another 450 illegal immigrants in a former prison in the town of Norfolk, population 11,988, at taxpayer expense.
The Epoch Times reached out to Gov. Healey’s office for comment but has yet to receive a response.
While the Biden administration assures that illegal immigrants go through a federal vetting process, Mr. Durant said the fact is, “We don’t know who they are.”
“If the trend continues, all I see is more and more severe financial hardship. I see more crime from unvetted immigrants. I think it’s a recipe for disaster.”
Mr. Durant feels the state’s faulty interpretation of immigration law is at the root of the crisis in Massachusetts.
Using claims of asylum-seeking is “just kind of a technical end-run around the entire legal system,” he said.
It’s the “standard line” by the Healey administration in which every illegal immigrant in the shelter program is in the state legally awaiting court adjudication at some future date, Mr. Durant said.
“Somehow, that makes them legal,” he said.
During a time of increasing belt-tightening, Massachusetts is short 200,000 housing units, exacerbating the illegal immigration crisis and the state’s homeless crisis.
“You don’t snap your fingers and have 200,000 units built overnight. You’re talking years of building,” Mr. Durant said. “They’re just ignoring all the other people here.”
“It’s not like ‘Let’s clear out this hotel.’ There’s plenty of them coming behind in the public shelters. It is not going to end soon—at all.”
He said the sense of frustration among everyday people at the community level is becoming palpable.
“They see the benefits that are available to these migrants that the people don’t get,” Mr. Durant said.
“They’re given free iPads. They’re given free legal services, which always gets me. You’re paying for lawyers to sue the state. You’re suing yourself.”
An official in one South Shore Boston town told The Epoch Times that residents feel voiceless and powerless about illegal immigration.
“Everybody is struggling. Costs are sky-high,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
“And now we have to try to help others. It’s one thing to help others, people in need. We don’t have any hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfasts—we don’t have anything.
“Why isn’t there a plan? Why can’t we agree to do it? That’s where the frustration comes in. What can we do except encourage our Washington representatives to take some action?”
Concerns over violent crime linked to illegal immigration flared on March 13 when police in Rockland, Massachusetts, population 17,489, arrested a Haitian man for the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl at a local hotel.
A grand jury last week handed up an indictment charging Cory Alvarez, 26, with felony rape of a child with a 10-year age difference and rape of a child with force.
His arraignment will take place in Brockton Superior Court at a later date.
Both the defendant and the alleged victim were staying at the Comfort Inn in Rockland under a state contract to shelter illegal migrant families.
In response to the incident, Ms. Healey told the media that the defendant “came in lawfully under the federal government through a federal program.
“It is unfortunate from time to time things will happen.”
Rockland Police Lt. Thomas MacDonald said the Comfort Inn hired an outside security firm following the incident.
“I do know that they had a company come in, and now they have unarmed, uniformed security,” Lt. MacDonald told The Epoch Times.
“Anything criminal, they call us. The police do go on medical calls. That has ticked up. The bulk of them are medical calls with the more people there.
“We’re doing more drive-bys—not as much since they hired security. Three times a shift to make sure if anybody needs anything,” he said.
Massachusetts Rep. David DeCoste, a Republican who represents Rockland, said he’s become frustrated by the impact illegal immigration is having on his constituents.
“Our state has rolled out the welcome mat. We’re hemorrhaging money,” Mr. DeCoste told The Epoch Times.
“And it’s coming at the expense of the elderly, who are of modest means, barely hanging onto their homes, and counting pennies when they go to pay for groceries.
“The costs are soaring, yet we’re offering free room and board, catered meals. It is hurting our veterans, our elderly.”
Mr. DeCoste said the financial impact of illegal immigration on the state’s health care program, MassHealth, has yet to be determined.
“Now, they’re becoming established here. They’re figuring out the system. We have tens of thousands of people, many of whom have probably never had any health care,” he said.
When illegal families began arriving at the Comfort Inn last year, Mr. DeCoste wanted to know what the taxpayers were paying.
So he asked the hotel for the information, and they readily provided it.
The agreement with the state is from Oct. 8, 2023, to Nov. 30, 2024. Each room costs $162 per night, and each individual receives a daily meal allowance of $64.
The total cost of the agreement is $12,622,890.
The alleged rape incident served as a wake-up call for the community, Mr. DeCoste said.
“This is waking people up. It isn’t a matter of fairness. It is a matter of common sense. These people are not vetted,” he said.
“They’ve brought rapists into the country. They’ve brought thieves into the country. We’ve probably got our fair share of murders, child rapists.”
“They claim they’re going to move them out into the community. There’s a severe housing shortage now.”
He sees hiring private security to maintain order at the hotel as a temporary solution.
“It is a short-term solution until we begin to return them to their homelands,” he said.
Left unchecked, Mr. DeCoste fears that illegal immigration could turn Massachusetts into “not a nice place to live, not a nice place to visit, not a nice place to go.
“Boston is a wonderful city. You can go and see the Celtics play. The Red Sox play. The Bruins play. We’ve got the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
“This could turn bad really quickly,” he said.
A Rockland town official who spoke on anonymity told The Epoch Times that the “real crisis” in the community is the lack of housing.
The “knee-jerk” reaction by some residents opposed to the shelter program in Rockland was an indication of “structural racism,” the official added.
Regardless, the alleged rape incident has left some residents in the town feeling angry and wanting answers.
At a neighborhood pub in Rockland, patrons Mike, Cheryl, and Tim pulled no punches talking with The Epoch Times about illegal immigration in their town.
“Migrants get away with everything,” Mike said. “Nobody wants them to come to their neighborhood.
“They’re slamming us taxpayers with everything. I don’t know where they came up with all this money, man.
“American citizens get trampled on. We’re all shaking our heads. It’s very overwhelming.”
Tim said: “If the politicians want to put them someplace, put them in their own houses first. The bottom line is we’re changing here. You can’t do anything about it. The judicial system has failed. It just keeps snowballing.”
Cheryl said that hotels and motels contracting with the state is a “no-brainer” from a business point of view. But in the end, it’s paying customers who lose out.
“There’s no choice. They’re asking us what we think about it. It’s not as if we can do anything about it.
“They’re getting free lodging and free food. They’re getting free iPads. They’re not contributing,” she said.
Neither patron wanted their full names used out of fear of public retaliation.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization, recently highlighted the many lucrative benefits illegal immigrants receive at taxpayer cost.
“Consider the $2 billion deal the Biden administration struck with Family Endeavors Inc. to provide housing for migrant families in hotels and facilities,” the organization wrote.
“America First Legal revealed that migrants were receiving concierge services under this contract, including hotel rooms, room service, 24-hour snacks and drinks, laundry, and dual-language television, in addition to other services.”
Mr. Durant believes that Massachusetts and other states across the nation can only “kick the can” of illegal immigration for so long.
“This cliff is coming,” he said. “As much as I don’t want this to continue, I don’t think the people who are here are going to leave here. And so we’ve got to do something.”
