Unverified migrants are taking beds in Massachusetts shelters from taxpayers: former director
AND former director of a migrant shelter in Massachusetts described the chaos he’s seen under the state’s right-to-sanctuary laws, saying the influx of illegal immigrants has bogged down the state’s infrastructure and that there is virtually no check on the surge in border crossings.
Massachusetts spent nearly $1.1 billion in taxpayer money this fiscal year to house and feed migrants arriving in the state, often in hotels that have been turned into shelters. However, taxpayers have sometimes found themselves kicked out of shelters because immigrants have overwhelmed the system and taken priority, said Jon Fetherston, who was director of the migrant shelter at the Marlborough Holiday Inn between November 2023 and July last year.
According to the law on the right to shelter, which was established in 1983, the state must provide accommodation for displaced families and pregnant women. In 2023, state shelters reached their capacity of 7,500 registered families – more migrants continue to use Massachusetts programs.
Fetherston he had previously detailed repeated violent incidents and child abuse he saw during his tenure – and condemned the lack of consequences for their perpetrators.
Illegal immigrants line the terminal floors at Boston Logan Airport as shelters in Massachusetts are overwhelmed. (WBZ)
In the light of the man from Dominican Republic, who was charged in Revere last month with possessing an AR-15 and $1 million worth of fentanyl in a state-subsidized facility, Fetherston explained the vetting process — or lack thereof — in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, 28, was arrested Dec. 27 after his girlfriend called Revere police to report that she had drugs and a long black handgun hidden under a pink suitcase in their hotel room. The woman told police she had lived at the Quality Inn for three months and that she and Sanchez had gotten a room through the refugee program.
“I worked at that shelter for a very limited time,” Fetherston told Fox News Digital. “You can’t hide an AR-15 in that room. You can’t hide drugs in that room. The rooms aren’t big … the case manager there should have stood up … there should have been red flags … to say ‘Hey, listen, this the guy doesn’t go to those meetings.
Meshach Little of security firm Northill Wilkston tours the main living area at the state’s emergency migrant shelter at the Melnea A. Cass Recreation Complex. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Fetherston said the incident was just another example of the lack of security and vetting at the state’s strained migrant centers.
The Housing and Livable Communities Executive Office, which oversees the state’s shelter program, told Fox News Digital it has security guards at every facility and conducts warrant checks every 30 days. However, Fetherston did not see that activity during his tenure.
“I will tell you that all the shelters where I either worked or volunteered [at] have a form of security. But … there’s actually someone sitting at a desk – no better than you’d have in a business park … it’s certainly not the level of security you need in those shelters … I’ve never seen someone come in and do a warrant check.”
Shelter staff are primarily selected for the languages they speak, not for any experience, he said.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, right, visit the Melnea A. Cass Recreation Complex, which was used to house more than 300 immigrants. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“You’re hiring people just because they speak the language that you need, because they’re Haitian or, you know, Portuguese or Spanish. So you’re not necessarily hiring a qualified caseworker or mental health advocate or someone who’s experienced in dealing with these things, because you people don’t exist,” he said.
“A lot of times…case managers became sympathetic to their countrymen when they were teaching them how to navigate the system and not always in the most ethical ways. And that’s where chaos ensued.”
Meanwhile, he said, there was “a huge amount of domestic violence…a huge amount of violence against children [and] an enormous amount of violence against fellow countrymen.”
Fetherston said alleged friends and relatives of the residents would regularly cycle through the facility where he worked. Despite the policy of residents coming through security, the staff was so stretched thin that it was almost impossible to keep track of who was coming in and out.
Pictured are items allegedly found on Leonardo Andujar Sanchez when he was arrested at a migrant shelter in Revere, Massachusetts, on December 27. (ERO Boston)
“[The Revere arrest] contact[es] hot spot [for me] since the third day, perhaps, of my being in the shelter,” said Fetherston. “‘Who is it?… I didn’t report them. I didn’t see them when they came in. Who are they?… How did this guy get by?’ “Well, that’s so-and-so’s uncle.”
Often, he said, families would “disappear” — hosts would report that the family hadn’t been in their room for three or four days. He would get calls about residents showing up at the facility, and they would never arrive, or a person would show up whose ID card didn’t match at all.
Since a Supreme Court ruling last November, after Fetherston left the shelter, shelters are not allowed to ask families for identification or documents when applying for the short-term shelter program.
This difference, he said, makes it democratic A recent call from Governor Maura Healey additional screening of emergency shelter residents to ensure they are in the U.S. legally, with rare exceptions, is impossible.
“I believe these changes are appropriate and necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the state’s shelter system in a manner consistent with the original intent of the legislation,” Healey said in a statement. “Additionally, these proposed changes will allow us to continue to ensure the safety of our system, support cities and towns in addressing the needs of unhoused families in their communities, and put us on a path to a more fiscally sustainable shelter system.”
“She can say she will increase checks, but how do you check someone who doesn’t have an ID? She also wants migrants to self-identify if they have committed crimes in the past – that’s not going to happen,” Fetherston said.
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Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey held a press conference announcing a major move to the state’s emergency shelter system. (Photo by Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
“She is saying it now, in an attempt to win [this] out of the news, and then have someone to blame when reform doesn’t happen,” Fetherston said.
Healey’s office could not be reached for comment at press time.
Fetherston said he has had to turn away American citizens who have fallen on hard times amid the chaos at the government’s migrant shelters.
“I would tell veterans to walk to the shelter, [saying] ‘I’m a Vietnam veteran, I just need a room for tonight.’ And I would say, ‘I’m sorry. This is for migrants. All public is not allowed. This is only for migrants,’ he reminded.
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“I couldn’t always find, you know, a homeless veteran a place on a cold night. But we have migrants,” he continued. “And again, I don’t blame them for living in a shelter where everything is free for three free meals, free dry cleaning, free Uber, has a roof over their heads, free health care. And I’m sending a decorated veteran out into the cold. I had to do it at least half a dozen.”
He also said that although there are technical limits on how long one can stay in government shelters, they are not always enforced, and places are not available for citizens in need.
“You can’t blame the people who stepped up and tried to do their job. You have to blame the system and the person running the system for not putting checks and balances in place,” Fetherston said. “The governor had no plan and she just wanted to open these shelters… Nobody specializes in this — Massachusetts is the only state in the entire nation that has shelter eligibility. So it’s fair to say, well, they didn’t have qualified people. Well, no one is qualified for this because no one has ever had to experience it.”
