Massachusetts Democratic Governor Maura Healey has dispatched a team of local officials to the southern border in Texas to warn that the state's emergency shelter system is already stretched thin and prevent more people from going there.
According to Healey's administration, San Antonio, McAllen, Hidalgo and Brownsville, in Texas, are the most common points of entry for migrant and asylum seeker families that later arrive in Massachusetts
That's why Healey's cadre, led by the state's shelter crisis director, Emergency Assistance Director General Scott Rice, is visiting these communities to meet with authorities from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, families arriving in the U.S. and the non-governmental organizations working with them at the border.
The goal is to "make sure they have accurate information about the lack of shelter space in Massachusetts," Rice said. "It is essential that we get the word out that our shelters are full so that families can plan accordingly to make sure they have a safe place to go."
Last fall, Healey capped the number of families in the state's emergency shelters at 7,500, housing immigrants as well as permanent Bay State residents. The state has since opened overflow shelters to deal with the continued influx of new arrivals.
As of Tuesday, 7,379 families were enrolled in the system, as per the state.
Border crossings have been dropping this year, and even more so after the executive order launched by President Joe Biden's administration, which is aimed at stemming the flow of migrants entering the country. The measure says that once arrivals at the U.S. southern border reach an average of 2,500 per day over a seven-day period, officials will bar migrants from claiming asylum and deport them to Mexico or their home countries.
Massachusetts administration officials are scheduled to visit the San Antonio Airport, the Centro de Bienvenida/San Antonio Migrant Resource Center and Shelter, the Ursula Processing Facility in McAllen, the Hidalgo Port of Entry, and the Brownsville Migrant Welcome Center.
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