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TO former director of immigration shelter in Massachusetts described the chaos he saw under the state’s right to housing laws, saying the influx of illegal immigrants has clogged the state’s infrastructure and there is virtually no research for the surge in people crossing the border.
Massachusetts spent nearly $1.1 billion of taxpayer money this fiscal year to house and feed immigrants coming to the state, often in hotels that have been converted into shelters. However, taxpayers have at times been locked out of shelters as migrants have crowded the system and taken priority, said Jon Fetherston, who served as migrant shelter director at the Marlborough Holiday Inn from November 2023. and July of last year.
Under its right to housing law, established in 1983, the state must provide housing to displaced families and pregnant women. In 2023, the state’s shelters reached their capacity of 7,500 registered families, still Immigrants continue to use Massachusetts programs..
Fetherston He previously detailed the repeated violent incidents. and mistreatment of children he saw during his tenure, and decried the lack of consequences for their perpetrators.
Illegal immigrants line the floors of a terminal at Boston’s Logan Airport as Massachusetts shelters are overrun. (WBZ)
In the light of a man of the Dominican Republic, Fetherston, who was accused of possessing an AR-15 and $1 million worth of fentanyl in a state-subsidized room last month in Revere, explained the investigation process, or lack thereof, in an interview with Fox NewsDigital.
Leonardo Andújar Sánchez, 28, was arrested Dec. 27 after his girlfriend called Revere police to report he had drugs and a long black gun hidden under a pink suitcase in his hotel room. The woman told police she had been living at the Quality Inn for three months and that she and Sanchez had obtained the room through a refugee program.
“I worked at that shelter for a very limited time,” Fetherston told Fox News Digital. “You can’t hide an AR-15 in that room. You can’t hide drugs in that room. The rooms are not big… the case manager should have been standing… there should have been red flags. . to say ‘Hey, Listen, this guy doesn’t attend those meetings.
MASSACHUSETTS DEM GOVERNOR NOW WANTS TO LIMIT ILLEGALS IN CRIME-FULL MIGRANT SHELTERS
Meshach Little of security firm Northill Wilkston walks the perimeter of the main living room at the state’s emergency migrant shelter at the Melnea A. Cass Recreation Complex. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Fetherston said the incident was just another example of a lack of security and vetting at the state’s tense immigration facilities.
The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, which oversees the state’s shelter program, told Fox News Digital that it has security guards at each facility and conducts warrant checks every 30 days. However, Fetherston saw no such activity during his tenure.
“I will tell you that all the shelters I’ve worked at and volunteered at have some type of security. But… it’s basically someone sitting at a desk, no better than what you would have in a corporate office park. …certainly not the level of security that is needed in these shelters…I have never seen anyone come in and do a warrant check.”
Shelter staff were chosen primarily for the languages they spoke rather than any type of experience, he said.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, right, visit the Melnea A. Cass recreation complex, which was used to house more than 300 immigrants. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“You hire people simply because they can speak the language you need, whether it’s Haitian or, you know, Portuguese or Spanish. So you’re not necessarily hiring a qualified caseworker or a mental health advocate or someone who has experience driving these things, because those people don’t exist,” he said.
“Many times… case managers became sympathetic to their compatriots when they were taught how to navigate the system and not always in the most ethical way. And that’s where the chaos came.”
Meanwhile, he said, there was “a tremendous amount of domestic violence… a tremendous amount of violence toward children (and) a tremendous amount of violence toward other compatriots.”
Fetherston said so-called friends and family of residents constantly cycled around the facility where he worked. Despite policies about residents passing through security, staffing was so short that it was nearly impossible to keep track of who was coming and going.
Pictured are items allegedly found in the possession of Leonardo Andújar Sánchez when he was arrested at a migrant shelter in Revere, Massachusetts, on December 27. (ERO Boston)
“(Revere’s arrest) “It hits the hot spot (for me) from the third day, maybe, of being in the shelter,” Fetherston said. “‘Who is that?… I didn’t register them. I didn’t see them when they came in. Who were they?… How did this guy get by?’ ‘Well, that’s so-and-so’s uncle.'”
Often, he said, families would “disappear”: Housekeeping staff would report that a family had not been in their room for three or four days. I would get calls about residents showing up at the facility and never showing up, or a person would show up whose ID didn’t match at all.
Since a ruling by the Supreme Court in November of last year, after Fetherston left the shelter, shelters cannot ask families for identification or documents when they apply for their short-term shelter program.
This distinction, he said, makes Democrats Recent call from Governor Maura Healey Further vetting emergency shelter residents to ensure they are in the U.S. legally, with rare exceptions, is impossible.
“I believe these changes are appropriate and necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the state shelter system in a way that aligns with the original intent of the law,” Healey said in a statement. “Furthermore, these proposed changes will allow us to continue to ensure the safety of our system, support cities and towns in addressing the needs of homeless families in their communities, and put us on a path toward a more fiscally sustainable shelter system.”
“She can say she will increase background screening, but how do you screen someone who doesn’t have an ID? She also wants immigrants to identify themselves if they have an ID.” crimes committed in the past, that’s not going to happen,” Fetherston said.
DEM GOVERNOR THREATENS TO USE ‘EVERY TOOL’ TO FIGHT TRUMP-ERA DEPORTATIONS
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey held a press conference announcing important measures related to the state’s emergency shelter system. (Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“She’s saying this now in an attempt to get it out of the news and then have someone to blame when reform doesn’t happen,” Fetherston said.
Healey’s office could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Fetherston said he has had to turn away American citizens who have fallen on hard times amid the chaos at the state’s migrant shelters.
“I would have the veterans come up to the shelter and say, ‘I’m a Vietnam vet, I just need a room for tonight.’ And I’d say, ‘I’m sorry. This is for immigrants. The public is not allowed. This is only for immigrants,'” he recalled.
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“I couldn’t always find a place for a homeless veteran on a cold night. But we have immigrants,” he continued. “And once again, I don’t blame them for living in a shelter where everything is free: three free meals, free dry cleaning, free Ubers, a roof over your head, free healthcare. And I’m sending a decorated veteran.” to the cold. “At least half a dozen times I had to do that.”
He also said that while there are technically limitations on how long one can stay in the state’s shelters, they are not always enforced and there are no spots available for citizens in need.
“You can’t blame the people who stepped up and tried to do their job. You have to blame the system and the person running it for not putting checks and balances in place,” Fetherston said. “The governor had no plan and she just wanted to open these shelters… Nobody specializes in this: Massachusetts is the only state in the entire nation that has the right to shelters. So it’s fair to say, well, they didn’t have qualified people. Well, no one is qualified for this because no one has had to experience this.”
