Around 250,000 illegal immigrants live in Massachusetts, Pew Research estimates.
Why are these people coming to our state?
Some are visa overstays, while others have illegally crossed into our country via the southern and northern borders.
Many of these people come to this country in search of a better life for themselves and their families. However, we’ve also seen some not-so-great illegal immigrants make their way into these cities, including terrorists, convicted killers, and child rapists, as NewBostonPost has reported.
We should never vilify people who want to pick fruit and send remittances to their impoverished relatives back home. Yet, we also have to be a country of laws and a country that does not incentivize awful criminals to come here.
That said, here are five ways Massachusetts incentivizes illegal immigration.
1. Sanctuary Cities
If you are a fan of illegal immigration, you can thank some Massachusetts cities for making it easier.
Massachusetts has eight sanctuary cities, according to CBS News. They are Amherst, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Concord, Newton, Northampton, and Somerville.
The term “sanctuary city” typically refers to a municipality that welcomes illegal immigrants through local government services. These municipalities limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
These cities effectively make immigration a matter of crossing the border. If you can get into the country and get to one of them, you’re in the country forever.
2. Driver’s Licenses
Illegal immigrants became eligible to get driver’s licenses in Massachusetts on July 1, 2023.
Then-governor Charlie Baker initially vetoed legislation passed by the legislature to make this happen in 2022, but the Democratic supermajority in the state legislature overrode his veto (despite bipartisan opposition).
Later that year, a majority of Massachusetts voters voted “yes” on a veto referendum ballot question in November 2022, preserving the law.
Liberal activists pitched the bill as, among other things, a way to make it easier for illegal immigrants to work in Massachusetts — another incentive for illegal immigrants to come here.
3. Right-to-Shelter
If you haven’t noticed, our state is putting illegal immigrants up in hotels, and Governor Maura Healey’s administration asked Bay Staters to house them in their private residences last year.
Massachusetts is the only state in the nation that guarantees emergency housing assistance to families and pregnant women, stemming from a 1983 statute. That’s all well and good, but we don’t have a residency requirement in the law, meaning that illegal immigrants from across the world can come here and get free housing.
Earlier this fiscal year, the state approved $250 million more than it originally budgeted for its emergency shelter system because of this foreign influx.
Notice other surrounding states that don’t have this law don’t have the same influx. Funny how that works.
4. College Subsidies
A budget bill signed into law by Healey made illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition at state-run colleges and universities in Massachusetts, and Boston is using federal stimulus money to provide its residents, including illegal immigrants, with tuition-free community college this school year.
These are moves your leaders make if they are pro-illegal-immigration. There is no other way to put it.
Also, the city of Boston’s spending this money on free college for illegal immigrants is one of the best examples of how money from inflation-inducing federal stimulus packages like the American Rescue Plan Act went to waste.
5. Welfare
Then-state representative Jim Lyons (R-Andover) got the state to reveal 10 years ago that it made $1.8 billion in welfare payments annually to illegal immigrants, according to The Boston Herald. There hasn’t been an updated figure since, but it’s hard to imagine it hasn’t increased since then.
If you want illegal immigrants to live in your state, what better way to get them to do it than by paying them money to live here?
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