Auchincloss wants Biden to send ‘assessment team’ to Boston to review migrant situation
The Biden administration should send an “assessment team” to Boston so federal officials can see first-hand how the state is grappling with an influx of migrants and the need for funds to support new arrivals, U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss wrote in a Friday letter to a state lawmaker.
Massachusetts’ emergency shelter is overflowing with homeless and migrant families who have the right to seek shelter under state law. State and local officials have repeatedly called on the federal government for funding and help managing the situation, which has led to frustration among Massachusetts Democrats.
Auchincloss said he shares a “deep frustration with our nation’s broken immigration system and its impact on our constituents.”
“I will continue to work to pass the bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform that I have co-sponsored and encourage the Biden administration to send officials to the commonwealth to assess the need for additional federal support,” Auchincloss wrote in a letter addressed to state Sen. Marc Pacheco, a Taunton Democrat.
Pacheco last month convinced more than 60 state lawmakers to sign onto a letter calling for immigration reform that was sent to congressional leaders and the Biden administration. It was a sign of mounting Democratic pressure on Washington to help Massachusetts deal with thousands of new arrivals entering the local emergency shelter system.
Immigration reform, Pacheco wrote, is urgently needed to address a dysfunctional entry system and a “rapidly-devolving” workforce shortage.
“The last time we took legal immigration legislation predates the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the internet,” Pacheco later told reporters. “The world is a completely different place today. We need an immigration system that allows the U.S. to meet the challenges of the rest of this 21st century.”
For his part, Auchincloss pointed to federal legislation he backs that he said “is a comprehensive proposal, incorporating border security, a fair and orderly pathway to citizenship, and root-cause solutions.”
The so-called DIGNITY Act, he said, creates two new pathways to citizenship, including immediate protected status and a streamlined path for “Dreamers” and temporary protected status recipients. The bill also reduces immigrant visa backlogs by granting immediate green cards to individuals who have been waiting for more than 10 years, he said.
Federal funding for border security, improved ports of entry, new “humanitarian campuses, and more employees would be funded by a 1.5% tax deducted from the paychecks of people given work authorization under the bill.
“This comprehensive legislation must be enacted alongside separate work authorization reforms,” Auchincloss wrote.
Auchincloss sent the letter to Pacheco a day after he took part in a virtual briefing with other members of the state’s congressional delegation and Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Senate President Karen Spilka, and House Speaker Ronald Mariano.
Mariano said state officials pressed the federal delegation for help during the meeting.
“We asked them to help us in this fight, to identify locations to house people, identify sources of money that we can access to help the immigrants that are moving into our school system, moving into our housing stock, anything that they can provide us to relieve the pressures that we are beginning to feel,” Mariano said Thursday.
By: Chris Van Buskirk
Source: Boston Herald