Massachusetts state Senator-elect Kelly Dooner (R-Taunton) has seen first-hand the impact the state’s migrant crisis has on communities.
The Taunton city councilor supports adding a residency requirement to the state’s right-to-shelter law to limit global demand for these free long-term hotel and motel stays in the Massachusetts emergency shelter system.
The 32-year-old Dooner, who defeated Raynham selectman Joe Pacheco, 48.5 percent to 46.5 percent in the Third Bristol and Plymouth race, said the influx of migrants has presented some problems for the communities where the state has put them.
The Clarion Hotel in Taunton houses about 450 people (mostly migrants) — and Dooner explained the detrimental impacts it has on the community.
“We were affected in more ways than one,” Dooner told a NewBostonPost reporter on The JV Team With Jared Valanzola on 95.9 WATD on Wednesday, November 6. “The taxes that the hotel was generating, we lost that revenue our city was receiving every year. I think that amounted to at least $165,000, so that is money that we had to come up with somehow. Normally, that would fall on the backs of the taxpayers but thankfully, we have a really great team in Taunton and a great CFO. We are very fiscally conservative and that’s very important not only to the council but for the entire administration.
“For starters, that’s been a challenge, but everything has been affected, from our police, our fire, our school system, and our community in general, not having that communication from our legislators at the state level and the administration at the state level. It was very difficult for our city to have the resources available when you don’t have anyone at the state level communicating with you. I’m pretty sure they didn’t communicate with us because they knew we weren’t going to be quiet about it. That’s why we found out after the fact and after the migrants moved in.”
Dooner said that she has sympathy for those who want to make a better life for themselves in the United States, but that she has to prioritize the needs of the American people first.
“I don’t want to sound unsympathetic, but when I’m struggling to find a veteran housing, or there’s seniors or single parents that I can’t find housing and they’re putting migrants over our legal residents who are struggling right now, that’s just something I’m not O.K. with or will ever be O.K. with,” Dooner said. “We ended up putting the veteran up in a hotel in another community, not Taunton, but it’s the principle behind it that no veteran should have to worry about where they’re going to sleep at night. It has an impact on everyone in our community, pretty much.”
Dooner’s campaign lists “end Massachusetts being a magnet state” as one of her top priorities as a state senator.
“As our next Senator, Kelly Dooner has pledged to amend the right to shelter law that requires our state to house every illegal immigrant,” the site says. “She will work to stop taxpayer-funded benefits for those who are not legally in our country. We can count on Kelly to protect our tax dollars.”
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Screenshot from Raynham Channel broadcast. 
