Dozens of migrants have been sleeping on the floors of Boston’s Logan Airport as the state struggles to house the influx of illegal immigrants after shelters reached capacity in November.
Footage obtained by CBS News revealed migrants sleeping under blankets in a corner of Terminal E in the airport. State police are being paid overtime to keep watch over them at night.
“The airport has been a wonderful partner, and I really want to thank the folks at the airport who are doing a wonderful job, including members of the state police who are working their regular shifts but who are managing the inflow and outflow of folks from the airport,” Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey told reporters at a news conference Monday.
Ms. Healey demanded the federal government help more.
“We need D.C. to act. We need Congress to act,” she said. “The path is there in terms of what needs to be done to fix the border situation, to fix some of the asylum processes and to get much-needed funding to some of the interior states who have had to shoulder the burden for a problem that is geopolitical and is not the state’s making.”
The Democratic governor asked for an additional $250 million to address the migrant crisis. Her office estimates the problem could cost the state $915 million next year.
In November, Massachusetts Port Authority interim CEO Edward Freni told reporters that the airport is “not an appropriate place to house people.”
He said families had been sleeping in the airport for three months, even before the shelters hit their limit.
Chicago has had the same problem, with migrants staying in O’Hare International Airport. While immigrants aren’t yet staying at New York airports, the city also faces a flood of illegals, with nowhere to house them and money running out.
The mayors of Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles and New York wrote a letter to President Biden in November urging him to do more to help the cities struggling with what Republicans call an invasion of illegals.