Governor Healey: The responsibility for migrant crime lies here

“From time to time things will happen.”

This was part of Governor Maura Healey's statement on the March arrest of Cory Alvarez, a 26-year-old migrant from Haiti, accused of raping a 15-year-old disabled girl at the Comfort Inn in Rockland, which had been converted into an emergency shelter for migrants.

As the Herald reported, 18-year-old Haitian Akim Marc Desire was arrested by Mansfield police on August 28 for indecent assault on a child under the age of 14, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a press release.

Desire reportedly entered the United States legally on June 4, 2023, but had since violated the terms of his legal entry.

Things happen and they will continue to happen unless someone in a position of power does something to stop them.

These are not isolated cases.

In June, the Herald learned that more than 20 people had been kicked out of the state's emergency shelter program for migrant families in recent months for “inappropriate behavior.”

The Herald obtained eviction notices from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities through a public records request after discovering that a 29-year-old man was allegedly kicked out of a Marlboro hotel housing immigrant families because a 16-year-old girl staying at the hotel had obtained a restraining order against him.

21 of the 22 recent “household separation” letters cited “inappropriate measures” under the refugee program for migrant families.

Healey's comment about Alvarez had more to it. In the same interview, she told Boston 25 News, “It's a terrible situation. It's a terrible allegation. My thoughts are with the victim and her family. I think we have the right systems in place. Unfortunately, this is a terrible incident.”

In the face of such horrific incidents, it is time, Governor Healey, to ask yourself whether we really have the right systems in place.

It's also time to ask what you can do about it.

“We continue to call on the federal government, and Congress in particular, to act and provide the necessary funding for resources at the border,” Healey told CBS Boston in March.

Federal funds and congressional action to regulate who crosses the border and who should be deported is one thing. Addressing the consequences of criminality among migrants already in the state is another.

Healey has made headlines for identifying problems and trying to solve them – at least those on the progressive agenda. She announced this week the largest procurement of offshore wind energy in the state's history.

“You don't have to look far to see the serious financial impacts of climate change and the need to take action to reduce emissions and provide clean energy,” Healey told reporters at the State House. “We have to do this.”