Repurposing Boston Rec Center Into Shelter for Illegal Immigrants Sparks Outrage

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

The border crisis in Massachusetts escalated on Wednesday when residents of Roxbury, a traditionally black neighborhood in Boston, were informed that a local recreation center would be closed to the public. The closure includes all activities and youth programs to accommodate hundreds of illegal immigrants.

Protesters, some armed with bullhorns—many with signs including one that read “Boston Is Full, Our Kids Come Last Why????”—gathered outside the Melnea Cass Recreation Complex on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Some of the protesters clashed with police who were guarding the recreation center as Gov. Maura Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and other officials held a press conference inside to herald the decision to convert the complex into what Ms. Healey promised would be temporary housing until the end of May.

“We’re here because we have no choice,” said Ms. Healey, who has cited the state’s right to shelter law as the reason she continues to provide housing to those who end up in Massachusetts.

Ms. Healey and other officials who spoke also said that those being moved to the shelter, whom she described as “living legally” in the United States, have come to the United States because “they were forced to leave” their country. She signaled that the majority of those being moved to the Roxbury recreation center are from Haiti.

One protester, who claimed to have grown up in Roxbury and experienced homelessness himself, asked where humanitarian efforts for Boston’s citizens are.

“Why all of sudden can the government find housing overnight for people who aren’t from this country but couldn’t for decades for their own constituents?” asked the man who was wearing a FedEx uniform.

‘Disrespectful’

During a live online forum held Monday, several Roxbury residents also expressed their outrage at the idea of repurposing the complex.

“Why us?” asked a resident."Rich communities won’t get this,” another resident said. “It’s disrespectful.” According to Ms. Healey, Roxbury is only one among 90 communities where similar shelters have been set up in Massachusetts.

Several youth programs have been suspended as a result of repurposing the rec center into a shelter including Boston United Track & Cross Country Club, a coaching and mentoring program for young people that also helps children stay on track with their school work. Elderly programs are also suspended and Roxbury residents can no longer access the complex’s indoor pool.

The complex, located on a street named in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. after his legendary march through the area in 1965, is named after local civil rights champion Melnea Cass. Known as the “First Lady of Roxbury,” Ms. Cass served as the President of the NAACP Boston chapter in the 1960s.

Ironically, the city’s largest, longest-running, and most notorious homeless encampment lines a Roxbury street also named after Ms. Cass. Over the summer, The Epoch Times met some of the residents. While many had severe drug addiction and mental health issues, they also included U.S. veterans and locals, including parents, who were evicted for nonpayment of rent.

In late October, just before the cold winter months in New England, Mayor Wu enacted an emergency ordinance to remove the tents in which many of the homeless individuals on Melnea Cass Boulevard were living.

On Wednesday night, just hours after the Healey administration started moving people into the Roxbury rec center, The Epoch Times observed dozens of homeless people wandering around Melnea Cass Boulevard.

Change of Heart

Ms. Wu initially sided with Roxbury residents over the use of the complex, telling a Boston radio station on Monday: “For the first community where this is being proposed to be Roxbury, a community that over so many decades has faced disinvestment, redlining, disproportionate outcomes, it’s very painful and it’s painfully familiar.” Ms. Wu also added she could not do anything to stop the move because the building is owned by the state.

However, Ms. Wu has since had a change of heart. Speaking extensively in favor of the repurposing at the press conference, Ms. Wu thanked Ms. Healey and her “entire administration for their leadership in an impossible situation.”

She then held up the decision to house illegal immigrants at the recreation center as a potential model for the nation.

“Everyone here, in really reflecting on what our beloved community is, and in those difficult times coming together to stand together, said we are going to figure out a way to not only solve the challenges and the needs that are immediately at hand but in some way treat this as an opportunity to be able to expand the impact and set a new model for how the rest of the country could think about this as well,” she said.

Delegate Lynn Bishop listens to a speech by candidate for governor Maura Healey during the state's Democratic party convention in Worcester, Mass., on June 4, 2022. Michael Dwyer, File /AP Photo

Ms. Healey said that the people being moved to the center were being relocated from nearby Boston Logan International Airport. However, only about 100 illegal immigrants were being housed at the airport according to early reports by the Healey administration. Ms. Healey said during the press conference that about 400 people would be sheltered at the Roxbury center.

The move to relocate individuals from the airport came after The Epoch Times and several other media outlets reported that families were being housed in the international terminal, which served as the departure point for two of the four planes used to carry out the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

State Republicans cited the nearly 1 million illegal immigrants reported by Homeland Security and the discovery that terrorists on the FBI watch list are crossing U.S. borders to highlight the security risks associated with housing people at an airport.

Airport chief Edward Freni said in a press conference that “we have to emphasize that Logan is not an appropriate place to house people.”

Local community leader Lois Elisa, a former member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who served under the administration of former Gov. Duval Patrick, told a local TV station that the recreation center is also not a suitable place to house people.

“The space, while good, is a gymnasium,” he told WFXT. “It will not provide the health and safety and security that you want for families.”

‘Leftist Agendas’

Rayla Campbell, a Boston native and local Republican firebrand who made history last year as the first black woman to appear on Massachusetts’ statewide ballot in her campaign for secretary of state, told The Epoch Times that she is ashamed that Massachusetts leadership is burdening a local community with their “leftist agendas.”

“The community has a right to be angry about American kids being kicked out of a place local tax dollars were spent on,” she said. “It’s shameful [that] kids are paying the price for illegal behavior.”

Ms. Campbell has also aligned herself with Republican lawmakers who challenge Ms. Healey’s interpretation of the right to shelter, arguing that if it were ever extended to non-Americans, it should only be for temporary assistance during disasters such as earthquakes.

Massachusetts Rep. David DeCoste, a Republican, told The Epoch Times he believes the 1983-enacted law applies only to U.S. citizens and has tried to get a bill passed to clarify that, but his efforts have been blocked by Democrats.

Meanwhile, some, including local conservative columnists, have questioned why public buildings in Arlington, where Mr. Healey lives, and in Roslindale, where Ms. Wu lives, haven’t been converted, as the Roxbury center has, into housing for illegal immigrants.