Gov. Healey says message that mass shelters are at capacity has been delivered to the border

Gov. Maura Healey said the delegation she sent to the U.S. southern border delivered the message that Massachusetts shelters are at capacity.

“We don’t have any housing available right now,” she said, describing the message her delegation brought to Texas earlier this week. “And we wanted to be very clear. This is something I’ve been saying for a long time, but I think it’s important that we can communicate directly with the people on the ground.”

“We’ve been facing this crisis for a long time now,” Healey told reporters at the State House on Wednesday. The governor declared a state of emergency last summer to deal with record numbers of families seeking shelter in the state system.

Over the past year, the state government has dramatically increased its spending to shelter migrants who have fled their home countries. As Massachusetts has opened its doors, officials have agreed in recent months to new plans to force some migrant families out of shelters and are now sending a stronger message about how much Massachusetts can do.

“I think it’s important that we’re out there with that message,” Healey said. “I mean, as we try to house people here, get them jobs, get them out of the shelter, and we’ve seen people coming out of the shelter, especially migrant families coming out of the shelter. C It’s also important, as I said from the beginning, that we are clear that we have reached our capacity here and that Massachusetts cannot continue to try to find ways to house new arrivals.

The US Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, on Wednesday praised the efforts made by law enforcement to stem crossings at the southern borders.

“The border security measures we have taken over the last 18 months bring order,” Mayorkas said during an appearance in Tuscon, Ariz., after ticking off steps taken in a executive order issued by President Joe Biden.

Immigration and border issues will likely feature in Thursday’s 2024 election debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Mayorkas, in Tuscon, and Healey, at the State House, promoted Biden’s executive order while reiterating their call for Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform bill, an accomplishment Congress has been unable to reproduce since the 1980s.