Around New England

Healey Not Handling Migrants Inflow Well, Democratic State Rep Says

September 12, 2023

Governor Maura Healey’s administration needs to do a better job coordinating state and local government services to deal with the influx of foreign migrants into Massachusetts, a state representative said Monday.

“The sheer volume and the needs of the arriving immigrants are complex and the official effort is barely keeping pace with the families arriving daily seeking shelter and other social services,” said state Representative William J. Driscoll Jr. (D-Milton), co-chairman of the Joint Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Management of the Massachusetts Legislature, in a letter to the governor dated Monday, September 11.

As part of what he termed “constructive criticism,” Driscoll called for “a unified incident command structure” – “… rather than the current state of play which appears to be hastily adapting the day-to-day operations of multiple agencies across multiple secretariats to attempt a version of crisis response.”

“A state of emergency has been declared yet the structure and cadence of the response underway is not recognizable to many with a lifetime of emergency management experience and expertise,” Driscoll wrote.

Driscoll worked in disaster relief for about 11 years before being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2016, according to his LinkedIn biography. Driscoll earned a certificate in advanced crisis leadership from Harvard University’s school of public health in 2020, according to an online legislative biographical sketch.

Governor Healey declared a state of emergency August 8, saying that during the previous six months “the demand for emergency shelter has skyrocketed” because of migrants from other countries arriving in the state.

In his letter Monday, Driscoll asked the governor why the state emergency operations center hasn’t been activated to deal with the inflow of migrants; how the administration plans to manage communication among government agencies; and whether the administration plans to engage with local government officials, including local emergency management directors and local boards of health.

State representatives last week expressed frustration with communication from Healey administration officials about how the state is dealing with the inflow of migrants, during a closed-door meeting Thursday, September 7.

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