Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey refuses to support Trump's deportation efforts

Gov. Maura Healey’s declaration that state police won’t assist in mass deportations is being blasted by critics who say it backtracks from her blaming the federal government for the migrant crisis.

Healey has come under fire after MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell asked the Bay State governor whether the Massachusetts State Police would support the incoming Trump administration’s effort to deport illegal immigrants.

“No, absolutely not,” Healey said resoundingly during the Wednesday night segment which has gone viral on social media.

“But let me say this,” she continued, “I do think it’s important that we all recognize that there’s going to be a lot of pressure on states and state officials, and I can assure you, we’re going to work really hard to deliver.”

Healey has defended her administration’s response to the ongoing migrant crisis which has put the emergency shelter system at capacity for months. The strain is expected to cost the state over $1 billion annually for several fiscal years.

The governor has also been critical of the feds and how they’ve addressed the nationwide problem.

“This is a federal problem,” Healey told WCVB in May. “Remember, the number of immigrants we’re seeing — in Massachusetts and other states — over the border is the result of federal inaction. There was a bipartisan deal on the table weeks ago. Republicans in Congress killed it after Donald Trump said no deal on immigration.”

MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale told the Herald Thursday she believes Healey is putting “political points” ahead of the “safety and financial health of the Commonwealth,” calling the governor’s stance a “disservice to the people of Massachusetts.”

“Governor Healey has chosen to indulge in apparent political showmanship rather than working to build bridges to benefit the people of Massachusetts,” Carnevale said in a statement. “What is most striking about the Governor’s recent statement is the glaring hypocrisy: she has blamed the federal government for the migrant crisis in Massachusetts, yet now that we have a newly elected President ready to address the immigration crisis with action, she is backtracking.”

Tapped as the 47th president after winning Tuesday’s presidential election, Trump has said tackling illegal immigration will be a top priority when he regains office in January. He plans to deport the roughly 11 million people estimated to be in the country illegally.

Many questions remain about how the plan will be executed.

Trump has spoken about using local and state law enforcement agencies and deploying the National Guard, which can be activated on orders from a governor. Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, has said troops under sympathetic Republican governors would send troops to nearby states that refuse to participate.

The Trump administration’s plan will likely be subject to litigation, Healey told O’Donnell during her MSNBC segment.

“I think that the key here is that every tool in the toolbox is going to be used to protect our citizens,” the governor said, “to protect our residents and protect our states, and certainly to hold the line on democracy and the rule of law as a basic principle.”

Healey’s position puzzles Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a D.C.-based research institute focused on immigration’s impact on American society.

Vaughan wonders “how many more rapes, fentanyl deaths and gang-related crimes (it will) take before the citizens demand a different approach” and if Healey would be willing to “forfeit federal grants … to maintain her crusade in support of illegal immigration.”

Last March, a 26-year-old Haitian national living at a Rockland migrant shelter allegedly raped a 15-year-old migrant girl. Cory Alvarez, the defendant, underwent two sex offender registry checks and entered the U.S. through “a federal program,” according to Healey’s office.

Healey, at the time, stressed the state had the “security and systems in place,” including vetting processes, but “it is unfortunate that from time to time, things will happen anywhere, not just in shelter, but anywhere.”

“This is an allegation of sexual assault and rape,” she said. “It’s one that we take very seriously. I’m glad that law enforcement was right on it.”

Alvarez had been free on $500 bail after a Plymouth court did not honor a federal immigration detainer before the U.S. Immigrations Customs and Enforcement arrested him on Aug. 13, according to the agency.

ICE has stayed busy arresting scores of illegal immigrants accused of committing crimes ranging from alleged sexual assaults of minors to alleged violations of drug laws.

“It’s hard to imagine what possible justification Gov. Healey would have for shielding deportable criminal aliens from ICE,” Vaughan told the Herald on Thursday, “considering the alarming number of illegal aliens who have recently been apprehended by ICE in Massachusetts after committing horrific crimes. As a former attorney general, she should know better than to politicize public safety by suggesting she’ll prevent state troopers from assisting in legitimate federal law enforcement.”

_________