The response has been blistering. The Massachusetts GOP — often consumed with its own internecine warfare — has vehemently demanded changes to the system, even claiming it should not continue to be funded without reforms.
“It’s time for heads to roll,” said House Minority Leader Brad Jones.
The shelter system has been a flashpoint of controversy for at least the past year. A huge influx of immigrants has pushed the system to its limits, requiring the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars to keep it afloat, in accordance with the state’s right-to-shelter law.
Meanwhile, security has been a persistent concern throughout the patchwork system of motels and other facilities used to house new arrivals. For many months, the state resisted efforts by the Globe to get records on criminal activity in shelters. The records, which were first requested in April, were finally released in December.
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In truth, background checks — which only uncover criminal charges in Massachusetts — would not provide the data critics are looking for, as many people in the system could have records in other places. But it is a step the state can and should take, as it has repeatedly promised to do.
The migrant crisis was not at the top of anyone’s mind when Healey was elected 14 months ago. But, it has quickly become the most complex and bitter issue facing the administration. All at once, it is a humanitarian crisis, an unsustainable financial burden, and now, a public safety issue as well.
To be fair, the state has been conducting checks for outstanding warrants and sex offenses. But it had not been conducting checks for past criminal activity.
Last March, after a shelter resident was arrested for the alleged rape of a 15-year-old, Healey was adamant that people in the shelter system were being closely screened. But now, the state admits that they do not know how many people with criminal records are living in state-funded shelters,
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Healey has said that Sanchez — the immigrant arrested with the rifle and fentanyl — took advantage of the shelter system and ordered a review of the shelters and the intake process for those entering it. The administration has also said full-scale criminal checks will now be conducted.
Certainly, the state should be making every effort to ensure the safety of the families in shelters, as well as others around them. People with violent criminal histories should not be housed next to newly arriving families who are just trying to find their footing in a new country.
But much as I support more effective safety measures, I worry. Specifically, I am concerned that those who always stand ready to vilify refugees and new arrivals will seize on these lapses as an excuse to try to dismantle a safety net they never supported to begin with. Massachusetts GOP, I might be thinking of you.
Healey herself has not been a model of consistency here. She supports housing immigrants and refugees. But — mindful of the demands this has placed on the state — she has also sought to move families out of shelter faster and make the whole system less burdensome. In theory, there is nothing wrong with that. But in practice, we now have this opaque and secretive system in which officials make promises about safety they do not fulfill.
Healey always says the real solution to the migrant crisis has to come from Washington, and she is right about that. But Massachusetts is not even doing what it can to keep vulnerable new arrivals housed and safe.
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That is on Healey to fix.
Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at adrian.walker@globe.com. Follow him @Adrian_Walker.