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REVEALED: The northeastern state that won't tell voters about its 'secret' $1 billion spend on migrants
Massachusetts Republicans have demanded the state's Democratic leaders come clean on their alleged '$1 billion in secret migrant crisis spending.'
The Bay State's GOP filed public records requests asking Gov. Maura Healey's administration to provide a detailed breakdown of spending on shelters, meals and other costs.
The request comes as Massachusetts scrambles to accommodate the roughly 50,000 non-legal migrants who've entered the state since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
The Boston area has in recent weeks been roiled by outrage, after Stoughton school district cut bus services to local kids but kept them running for young migrants living in shelters.
Against this troubling backdrop, Amy Carnevale, the state's GOP chairwoman, demanded that Healey come clean about how taxpayer dollars were being spent.
Gov. Maura Healey tours a recreational center in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston that was converted into migrant shelter, denying the facility to local families
Dozens of migrant families were until recently bedding down at Boston's Logan International Airport, spotlighting the strain on the Bay State
Her 'administration has shrouded nearly $1 billion spent in secrecy, leaving Massachusetts residents in the dark,' Carnevale said.
'They have withheld critical information on 600 incidents involving police, fire, and EMT.'
When reporters asked questions about migrant costs, Healey's team was 'blocking them at every turn,' said Carnevale.
'The administration has obstructed the flow of information to the public.'
Healey's spokespeople did not answer The Mail's request for comment.
In a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Carnevale called for details of the state's funding to provide housing for migrants.
It seeks the names of government and private entities that provide emergency shelters, where they're located, and details of any public safety issues and police and emergency reports.
Healey's administration last August declared a state of emergency, saying Massachusetts had more than 20,000 migrants in its shelter system.
Investigations have revealed that the surge in migrants has strained services and gobbled up huge amounts of taxpayer money.
CBS News Boston in February got hold of documents showing the state had 17 contracts totaling $116 million to house migrant families through June.
The state's Republican chairwoman Amy Carnevale accused Healey's team of operating behind a 'veil of secrecy' about its migrant spending and called for 'accountability.'
Hundreds rallied for an end to border crossings, sanctuary cities, and housing for undocumented immigrants in Boston, Massachusetts, in May
That included a worrying no-bid $10 million contract for a company providing meals, by the outlet.
In some cases, the state paid hotels a staggering $64 per person each day for meals, including $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch and $31 for dinner.
Meanwhile, the Republican-led city of Taunton in March sued its only hotel, which had cut a $10 million-a-year deal with the state to become an emergency shelter for migrants.
The city asked for $115,000 from the 155-room Clarion Hotel for housing more migrant families than it can safely hold.
Carnevale accused Healey's team of operating behind a 'veil of secrecy' about its migrant spending and called for 'accountability.'
'Enough is enough,' she added.
'The public deserves transparency. Release the details on the vendors profiting from this crisis and the public safety issues affecting our communities.'
The demand follows a report from the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, which warned that the crisis was pushing Massachusetts toward bankruptcy.
The 50,000 non-legal migrants who've entered the state since Biden became president are putting a costly strain on schools, healthcare, and other services, it says.
This will drain state coffers of a staggering $1.8 billion over the next two years, warns report author Jessica Vaughan.
Migrants from Haiti and elsewhere load into a van in Boston headed to a shelter in Quincy, Massachusetts
Even though some non-legal migrants will work and pay taxes, this revenue will not come close to the cost of social services for all 355,000 of them, says Vaughan.
'These migrants represent a looming fiscal disaster for taxpayers in Massachusetts,' Vaughan told the Mail.
'Even if they are working, they are not equipped with skills and education to avoid being a drain on public coffers.'
Migration expert Jessica Vaughan
The revelations come amid a testy 2024 presidential race, with Republican nominee Donald Trump using immigration as a weapon against his rival, the Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
Republicans dub Harris a failed 'border czar,' as she was tasked with tackling the root causes of migration from Central America, even as illegal border crossings smashed records.
Still, the number of illegal entries has dropped in recent months to levels not seen since the Trump administration, and it remains unclear how the issue will drive voting in November.
Trump, for his part, has vowed to launch mass deportations if he returns to the White House.
Though more than 2,000 miles from the southern border, Massachusetts has seen some 50,000 newcomer illegal migrants since January 2021, says the study.
Some joined relatives, others sought jobs in Boston, Worcester, Springfield, and other big cities.
Others used buses provided by officials at the frontier, and a few dozen were controversially flown to the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard by Florida's Republican Gov Ron DeSantis.
They were at first greeted with open arms by a Blue state that affords 'sanctuary' protections to migrants.
Migrants are no longer allowed to sleep overnight at Boston's Logan Airport
A taxpayer funded class in computer skills for the influx of migrants in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston
More than half of Americans want to see mass roundups and deportations of undocumented immigrants
In recent months, however, the mood has changed to frustration.
Gov. Healey recently announced that migrants would no longer be allowed to sleep overnight at Boston's Logan Airport, after dozens of families had been bedding down there for months.
Migrants slept at the emergency department of Boston Medical Center until last year, when they were told to stop.
Still, newcomers keep on showing up at the facility and have been seen resting outside on benches.
Plans for a shelter for migrant families on Cape Cod have met stiff opposition from residents, who called the proposal a 'nightmare.'
The Republican-led city of Taunton was so vexed by state officials sending migrants to an emergency shelter in its 155-room Clarion Hotel that it sued the owners for safety violations.
Vaughan's report also documents the outrages committed by law-breaking migrants in Massachusetts.
They include a cocaine-smuggling Dominican, a Russian fraudster, and a Guatemalan man who was arrested for child rape.
But the most shocking case involves Haitian migrant Cory Alvarez, 26, who is behind bars fighting charges that he raped a disabled teen girl at his shelter in the Comfort Inn in Rockland.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, has called for action at the border and money to services running on in her cash-strapped state
A few dozen migrants were controversially flown to the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard by Florida's Republican Gov Ron DeSantis.
The influx of migrants has further strained social services in a state that was already battling troubling levels of homelessness
Massachusetts already spends $1 billion each year on emergency shelters, but Vaughan says this masks the real cost on taxpayers.
The influx of newcomers under Biden, including some 10,000 children, 8,500 of whom travelled without an adult, is further straining education, healthcare, and other social services, it adds.
Over the next two years, the combined cost of food stamps, schooling, health care, and public safety could reach a jaw-dropping $1.8 billion, says Vaughan.
That 'fiscal time bomb' represents a sizable chunk of the state's $58 billion budget.
Gov. Healey, a Democrat, in January joined eight counterparts from other migrant-hit states, asked the White House and Congress for action at the border and billions of extra dollars to keep services running.
But, according to Vaughan, even an emergency grant won't solve Massachusetts' spending woes over the coming years.
Instead, state lawmakers need to cut welfare payouts to migrants and get tough with employers who hire those without papers, she said.
They should also end sanctuary policies that stop immigration officers from launching deportation raids, and even 'tap into' the remittance flowers migrants send back to their families overseas, she added.
The Governor's office did not answer our request for comment. The White House and other migration experts have argued that newcomers often work hard, pay taxes and help to grow an economy.