Just hours after Massachusetts mostly-Democrat legislature voted to pour $250 million more into housing for illegal immigrants, a Republican candidate who has been outspoken against using taxpayer money to shelter them, has won a Senate seat long held by Democrats.
Peter Durant, who in defying an otherwise blue sweep in this week’s special election across the country, took a commanding double-digit lead over Democrat John Zlotnik for the open seat representing Worcester, the New England state’s second-largest city.
“Our victory and the size of that victory sends a clear message to Beacon Hill that voters are tired of policies that prioritize illegal immigrants over our own citizens,” Mr. Durant, a current member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, told The Epoch Times following his win.
In addition to opposing President Joe Biden’s open border policies, Mr. Durant is also pro-life, a staunch supporter of Second Amendment gun rights and law enforcement.
Mr. Durant’s victory also follows a report last week that a convicted murderer from Venezuela, a wanted fugitive in his native country, turned up at government-funded housing set up for migrants on the state’s affluent Cape Cod, the same shores where the ferry that carried Venezuela migrants last year to Martha’s Vineyard, departed from.
The migrants were sent there by Gov. Florida Ron DeSantis, now a candidate for president after they were dropped off in the Sunshine State.
It took only two days for the rich atoll, a self-prescribed “sanctuary destination” where well-manicured lawns are dotted with Black Lives Matter and million-dollar homes with LGBT banners, to ship them off the island.
MV officials claimed they had no housing or jobs to offer them although an investigation by The Epoch Times turned up empty dormitory buildings and countless job listings for entry-level jobs in local newspapers.
Jordano Gotopo-Lopez’s fugitive status was detected on July 31 as he entered the United States from Mexico at the Eagle Pass Entry point in Texas. The 38-year-old, who has been wanted since 2006, was not arrested, however.
Instead, as reported by NBC Boston, he was told to self-report in 60 days for deportation.
He somehow was admitted into housing at the Joint Base in Bourne on Cape Cod where he lived until immigrant ICE agents discovered him there on Oct. 27.
According to a written statement by ICE’s Boston Field Office director Todd M. Lyons, Mr. Gotopo-Lopez is now in custody pending deportation.
Mr. Gotopo-Lopez was let go in Texas despite having an Interpol “Red Notice,” the highest alert for international arrest warrants.
“You have to ask yourself how many more are there,” Mr. Durant told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Durant, who has expressed public disgust over giving housing to migrants over homeless veterans, won a House seat left open by Democrat Anne Gobi.
Ms. Gobi held the seat since 2015. She vacated it to take the job as Director of Rural Affairs for Gov. Healey’s administration.
Rep. Durant has been locked in a public controversy with Massachusetts Democrat Gov. Maura Healey over her refusal to release the names of thousands of hotels and motels she has secured with millions of dollars in taxpayer money to house migrants.
In a letter back to Mr. Durant’s written request for the information, Gov. Healey said it was at her administration’s discretion to release the information.
Mr. Durant told The Epoch Times in October that based on the limited information he did have, Gov. Healey seemed to be skipping over affluent communities and instead buying up hotel rooms and other housing in working-class communities.
Rep. Durant also believes that Gov. Healey is misappropriating a state right-to-shelter law he said is intended for U.S. citizens only and not people living illegally in the United States.
He has a pending House bill that would affirm the use of emergency and public housing for American citizens only.
Before the House vote on Nov. 8, Gov. Healey was already given $325 million.
Mr. Durant called it a blank check—noting that like her refusal to name where all the immigrants were being housed, the governor also refused to give specifics about how the money was being spent.
In leading the recent vote to grant the additional money, House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz said: “It would be no blank check.”
Gov. Healey will be required to earmark $75 million of the money to reimburse schools absorbing new children from migrant families, $6 million for shelter staff, $3 million for family welcome centers, $12 million for health clinics for arriving families, and $6 million to towns where migrants were being housed.
But it is not a done deal, the distribution of the $250 million for migrant shelter, has to be approved by the Senate.
The vote comes at the heels of what appeared to be a near-breaking point for Gov. Healey, a diehard liberal, with the flood of immigrants into Massachusetts.
After her administration announced it was nearly maxed out in housing options for migrants, she told migrants: “There are other states for them to go to.”
She was sharply criticized for the comment. There have since been published reports of families being turned away from housing in Massachusetts,
La Colaborativa, a Boston-based immigration aid organization, told the Associated Press on Nov. 8 that a family it tried to place this week was placed on a waitlist and provided with no housing.
Gov. Healey had already declared a state of emergency in August and called up the National Guard in response to the flood of migrants, under the Biden administration’s open border policy.
According to the governor, Massachusetts taxpayers are spending an average of $45 million a month on immigrants drawn to the state by the state’s “right to shelter” law.
She has yet to publicly criticize President Biden’s open border policy, which has also drawn criticism from her own party members.
In the September letter, Rep. William Driscoll (D-Norfolk), chairman of the House Joint Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Management, called Gov. Healey’s response to the crisis “chaotic” and said that the declared state of emergency was “not recognizable to many with a lifetime of emergency management experience and expertise.”
In the meantime, Boston, a self-proclaimed sanctuary state for migrants, has started taking away tents from the city’s homeless under a new ordinance called for by city Mayor Michelle Wu.
In September, The Epoch Times met several U.S. veterans living in the city’s largest homeless encampment.
They expressed disgust that migrants were able to “walk in” to housing without being vetted while they had to fill out paperwork including financial information, show proof of citizenship, wait to meet with a social worker and undergo a criminal background check and drug testing.
Those who support Mr. Durant’s bill include state Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Cape Cod Republican, who believes the state’s right-to-shelter law—passed in 1983—never intended to be for people from other countries.
“We have to focus on our own people,” Mr. Xiarhos told 22News.
So far, according to the Healey administration, the state has provided housing to nearly 7,500 migrant families.
On Nov. 1, a Massachusetts Superior Court judge denied a request for an injunction filed by a nonprofit organization against any caps on the number of families offered emergency shelter in the state.
This week, state lawmakers publicly tossed around several options to house migrant families—including the Hynes Convention Center located in Boston’s Back Bay.
Ironically, the 176,000-square-foot building was dedicated as a veteran’s memorial to Boston Mayor John B. Hynes, who served in the U.S. Army.
It features a 4,000-seat auditorium, a vaulted ballroom, 3,100 hotel rooms, and 200 retail shops and restaurants.
