As New Hampshire Democrats continue to insist that GOP concerns about illegal immigration are overblown, high-profile cases of migrant crime are creating headlines next door in Massachusetts.
Just this week, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Boston field office announced they’ve arrested an Ecuadorian national in Plymouth facing rape and kidnapping charges, a Brazilian man facing attempted murder charges in his home country, a Mexican man living in Lynn who had previously been deported following a rape conviction, and a Guatemalan man who illegally entered the country in 2016 and was later charged with first-degree child molestation sexual assault, among others.
And officials said they have detained a Haitian migrant charged raping a disabled 15-year-old girl after a Massachusetts judge set him free on $500 bail.
Yet the apprehension of 26-year-old Cory Alvarez was “unbeknownst to our office” according to Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz, whose office had previously argued in court that Alvarez should be held on $25,000 bail.
ICE officials had submitted a detainer request to local law enforcement that was promptly rejected, as Alvarez was apparently living in the “sanctuary city” of Boston at the time.
Yet ICE managed to catch up with Alvarez on Monday morning, outside his home in Brockton, according to his attorney.
Cruz, the Republican district attorney whose jurisdiction includes Brockton, remained incredulous.
“As part of the Alvarez case, for months now, our office has repeatedly asked questions of state and federal officials about specifics of the CHNV process,” Cruz said in a statement, referencing President Joe Biden’s parole program allowing sponsored migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter and remain in the U.S. “We have received little to no answers.”
Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank focused on the impact of immigration, called Alvarez’s case “disturbing on so many levels.”
“This man never should have been allowed to enter the United States,” Vaughan said.
Cruz’s office isn’t the only one being stonewalled following a public information request.
On the same day ICE officials confirmed Alvarez’s detention, the left-leaning Boston Globe published a report revealing that Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey is withholding public information regarding the commonwealth’s migrant shelter program and where at least $1 billion is being spent annually.
In every request for information about the spending, Healey redacted the name of the vendor. That means the names of businesses benefiting the most from the Bay State’s right-to-shelter approach to illegal immigration — including the shelter-turned-hotel that was the location of Alvarez’s alleged rape — remain secret, outside of police reports.
Since January 2023, when the state began extending in earnest its 1983-enacted “right-to-shelter” law to the waves of illegal immigrants entering Massachusetts, inquiries from journalists and the public have been met with a wall of silence.
In February, an NHJournal report focused on a hotel-turned-shelter located less than a mile from the New Hampshire line, a facility that drew more than 380 responses from police in less than a year. A reporter’s visit to the former hotel ended with an order to leave the premises.
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a nonprofit taxpayer watchdog organization, released a statement Tuesday regarding the commonwealth’s lack of transparency.
MassFiscal spokesman Paul Craney questioned why Massachusetts officials keep withholding information even as other Democrat-run cities and states featuring “sanctuary” illegal immigration policies readily comply with public information requests.
“Massachusetts is not in some peculiar situation here,” Craney said. “Unfortunately, we live in the least transparent state in the country. We’re the only state in which all three branches of government exempt themselves from their public records law.”
Healey has endorsed former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, a supporter of sanctuary city policies, in the race for New Hampshire governor.
The state’s shelter-related vendor costs made headlines in February after reports revealed an East Boston-based business had been awarded a $1 million no-bid contract to provide meals for shelter residents.
“When you do the math out for a family of four, they’re spending $256 a day for that family and annually it would cost taxpayers $92,000 for meals for that family,” Craney said. “Does anyone you know spend close to $100,000 on food for their family?
“Our emergency shelter system is very clearly in dire need of public oversight and scrutiny.”
A spokeswoman for Healey said the information is being redacted “to protect the safety and privacy of vulnerable families and providers, who have already been the subject of hate and harassment.”
Meanwhile, the same federal parole program that brought Alvarez to Massachusetts appears to have met an abrupt end after an internal report found the program was the source of widespread identity fraud. In Alvarez’s case, he entered the country after reportedly agreeing with federal officials to connect with a parole sponsor in Newark, N.J.
Vaughan noted Alvarez is “one of about 138,000 inadmissible and unvetted Haitians” brought to the U.S. without any legal precedent, “under a grant of immigration parole, under a reckless and improper scheme that was implemented by the Biden-Harris administration with complete disregard of the interests or concerns of the local communities that have had to accommodate these migrants.”
Vaughan said that American “sponsors” involved in the Biden administration program claim a pledge to assist migrants like Alvarez, “but in reality, don’t have to provide any support, or even know the migrants.”
Why Massachusetts?
Vaughan had an answer.
“So many of the migrants flocked to Massachusetts, undoubtedly due to the state’s sanctuary policies, that the emergency shelter system became overwhelmed,” she said. “Since the so-called sponsors don’t actually have to support the migrants they ‘sponsor,’ and the NGOs (non-government organizations) who begged for this parole program don’t have to support them, the state ended up having to provide shelter and other assistance to keep the migrants from having to live on the streets, in the airport, and in hospitals.”
As for the Plymouth County district attorney’s complaint about being left in the dark by both the Biden administration and the Healey administration, Vaughan said the Democrats’ information blackout should not have come as a surprise.
“Massachusetts public safety authorities should not expect to receive any answers from either the federal government, which is responsible for Alvarez being here, or from state officials, who have not objected to the way Alvarez and thousands of others have been allowed to come here,” Vaughan said.
Vaughan also referenced the Healey administration’s recently-announced five-day cap on shelter stays. While Healey was careful not to mention illegal immigrants specifically in her announcement, the Massachusetts governor’s decision effectively placed them at the back on the line in terms of shelter access for the first time since January 2023 — behind veterans and American families.
Vaughan told NHJournal Healey’s arrival at the above decision was only a matter of time.
“The bills for supporting the migrants are coming due, and the human cost of allowing in so many unvetted migrants is so painfully apparent,” she said. “The only answer that the Biden and Healey administrations can offer is that this is their vision of a better immigration system, and they intend to give us more of it.”
