(NewsSpace.com) – The border crisis has raged out of control since before President Joe Biden took office. As a means of alleviating its own resources, the state of Texas has taken to shipping migrants across the United States, mainly to the blue states. One of those states is Massachusetts, where migrants in Boston have overwhelmed systems. Now, the state is turning to volunteers to take in the immigrants.
Residents Taking in Migrants
In Brookline, a town in Massachusetts that’s part of the larger Boston Metropolitan area, residents have been stepping up to help migrants who have nowhere else to go. Many have been sleeping on the floor at Boston’s Logan Airport, and images of them have tugged at the locals’ hearts.
The Stokes family is one that opened its home to a family of four migrants who made their way to Texas from Chile before landing in Massachusetts. When the Stokes agreed to host, they didn’t get any information before the family landed on their doorstep less than an hour later.
Lisa Hillenbrand is another Brookline resident who opened her home to migrants, this time a family of three. Like the migrants the Stokes family took in, Wildande Joseph, her husband, and her two-year-old daughter were sleeping on the airport floor. However, the little girl got sick, and the family spent a few days at the local children’s hospital with her before going to Hillenbrand’s home.
Both of the hosts have spoken out about how taking in the migrants has opened their eyes to the real crisis going on.
An About Face?
While many residents are expressing their desire to help, that wasn’t always the case. Just last month, Governor Maura Healey (D) announced that she was converting a state-owned recreation center, Melnea Cass, into a place for migrants to stay. It’s set up to house 400 individuals or 100 families as they wait for a more permanent solution. The plan is to use the facility through the end of May, when it will revert back to a recreational center for town residents.
The backlash was swift in that case. Many residents felt that their recreational space was being torn out from under them and accused state officials and Governor Healey of “displacing” them. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) also spoke out about her disappointment in the decision.
Healey had previously asked the federal government for help, particularly when the homeless shelter reached capacity in November. According to WCVB, there are more than 650 families waiting for shelter.
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