(RightWing.org) – Massachusetts Democrat Governor Maura Healey has declared a state of emergency due to a shortage of safe housing for everyone who needs it. She attributes at least part of the problem to the ever-increasing number of migrant families, including those with small children and pregnant women, flooding the state in search of work, stability, and opportunities. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy recently discussed Healey’s significant policy shift from her time as the state’s attorney general with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
Healey Sends Out an SOS
On Tuesday, August 8, Healey wrote a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for federal assistance to help cover the shortfall in housing and to request changes in national policy regarding work authorizations. She stated that Massachusetts was housing over 5600 families, many with children or pregnant women, often coming from violent situations in their home countries.
Healey told Mayorkas that even though the state is spending upwards of $45 million per month to shelter and care for the families, it can’t keep up with the influx or the need to create new shelter space. She said her state’s shelter system could no longer meet the demands migrant families or its own residents are placing upon it.
Healey declared the emergency hoping the federal government or Congress could provide funding or resources to assist Massachusetts in continuing to provide care and shelter for the influx of migrants.
Ramaswamy Notes a Sea Change in Healey’s Response to the Migrant Crisis
Speaking with Ingraham on the Fox News program “The Ingraham Angle,” Ramaswamy observed that in 2017, when Healey was the Massachusetts attorney general and asked about the state’s status as a sanctuary destination, she told the Boston Globe, “we have a system that’s working well here.” Yet, now, she characterized the continually increasing demand from an influx of migrants as “unsustainable.”
Ramaswamy discussed the concept of the Overton Window with Ingraham and its application in Massachusetts. In broad terms, the Overton Window describes a range of political policies a population, like a state constituency, finds acceptable at a given time. However, both political and social forces can act on the public’s perception, potentially causing the window of acceptable political policies to expand.
For instance, most Massachusetts constituents have polled in opposition to the border wall. Yet, Ramaswamy believes the policy position has likely changed because of the pressures exerted by the influx of migrants into the communities. He also noted the change “is too little, too late.”
Still, the candidate insisted Democrats must experience a greater shift in their Overton Windows to mandate effective policies against lax borders. In the past, Ramaswamy has even advocated using military forces at the borders to exert control. He envisions such policy shifts in Democratic enclaves as possible.
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