FOR A BRIEF MOMENT on Beacon Hill, former president Donald Trump transformed into the evil Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter – He Who Must Not Be Named.
During a budget hearing on Wednesday, lawmakers and Gov. Maura Healey wrestled with the rising cost of the emergency shelter program, which serves a large number of Massachusetts residents but has been financially swamped by migrants coming to the state from other countries.
The cost has ballooned from $325 million to more than $900 million this fiscal year and the governor’s answer has always been that immigration is a Washington problem that needs to be fixed in Washington. A bipartisan deal to do just that has been in the works for months, but it fell apart this week on Capitol Hill, leaving Healey in an awkward position.
Sen. Michael Moore, a Democrat from Millbury, asked the governor what her Plan B was. Healey had little to say about a Plan B – “We’re going to continue to manage the situation,” she said – but a lot to say about the failure to reach agreement in Washington on a bill addressing border security as well as aid for Ukraine and Israel. And she blamed Trump without mentioning him by name.
“Because of the comments of one individual a week and a half ago, everybody walked away. Everyone on one particular side of the aisle walked away,” she said. “I’ve called the White House. I’ve called Congress. I’ve called our delegation. If anyone has a way to get through to Republicans in Congress to stop playing politics and move on for the betterment of this country, we could solve this issue today. Not only in Massachusetts, but across this country.”
Healey said the compromise legislation would solve the migrant problem in Massachusetts. “It would have closed down the border. It would have tightened and reformed our broken immigration system. It would have provided permits for workers that many states and employers need. And, for the purposes of this committee, it would have provided $118 billion that could have gone to help states like Massachusetts that have been footing the bill,” she said.
Later, at a press conference outside her office, Healey reiterated that the deal negotiated in Washington by representatives of both parties would have fixed the border, fixed immigration, ended the migrant crisis, and provided badly needed aid for Massachusetts. She said a deal was so close.
“All that went away because Donald Trump said something last week that he didn’t want the deal under any circumstances,” she said, finally mentioning the former president by name and blaming Republican leadership in the House and Senate for the failure of the deal to pass.
Trump, according to The Hill, wrote on Truth Social that “only a fool, or a Radical Left Democrat, would vote for this horrendous Border Bill.” House Republican leaders said the bill would be dead on arrival if it came to the House.
The bill failed in the Senate on Wednesday by a 49-50 vote. The only Republicans who voted for the bill were Sens. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who helped draft the legislation, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Mitt Romney of Utah. The Senate’s Republican minority leader, Mitch McConnell, whose staff helped draft the bill, voted against it.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, voted no because the bill contained aid to Israel. Despite Healey’s claim that Republicans walked away from the deal, four Democratic senators also voted no: Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Alex Padilla of California, and both senators from Massachusetts – Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren.
Markey issued a statement saying he would continue to push for more funding to help Healey support migrants coming to the state, but he said he could not vote for the overly restrictive immigration policies contained in the bill.
“I voted no because I am not only against Donald Trump, but also against hateful Trump policies,” he said.
On Beacon Hill, Sen. Moore said he didn’t hear much about a Plan B from Healey now that the Washington solution appeared to be on the rocks. But he said he was willing to cut her some slack because the immigration reform package had just been defeated in Washington.
Sen. Peter Durant, a Republican from Spencer, said it was a “red herring” for Healey to blame Trump because it was President Biden who opened the southern border by reversing many of the Trump border policies. He said Healey needs to deal with the problem directly and not wait for Washington to act.
“Even though we put in place a cap of 7,500 families, they are still coming and it still costs us money and they still put them up,” Durant said. “We need a plan and I think that plan is to stem the flow. I didn’t hear a plan. It’s put the blame on Washington and cover your ears.”
