The immigrants arrived at a remodeled sports center in a Boston neighborhood on Wednesday, as locals angrily demanded to know where they could now hold their usual training sessions.
Maura Healey, the governor of Massachusetts, and Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston, toured the Melnea Cass Recreation Center in Roxbury on Wednesday, inspecting the cots and children’s play area.
The site will house up to 400 migrants, until the end of May, and authorities, as a sweetener, have promised improvements to the facilities when the migrants finally leave.
But many in the historically black and marginalized community were angry about the decision to give up their sports center.
“We sympathize with them, we as people of a community that we love, but sometimes we love many in spite of ourselves,” said resident and community activist Clifton Braithwaite.
Beds for 400 migrants are seen inside the sports center, which will be closed to access by the local community until May 31
A children’s play area has been set up inside the sports center
Clifton Braithwaite, a local community activist, said the sports center was badly needed by residents.
Tony DaRocha, who coaches young athletes for free at the Boston United Track and Cross-Country club, said he hasn’t been told where his team can go next, with a meet scheduled for Sunday.
“We empathize with what is happening,” he said. CBS News.
‘But at the same time our children are negatively affected. Our program is one of the few stable moments in their lives.’
One of the athletes, Andy Suárez, added: “I have been coming here for two years and it is my second home.”
On Wednesday, protesters were at the sports center, holding signs demanding to know why their children were being forced outside.
Tony DaRocha, sports coach, said they now had nowhere to train
Protesters are seen on Wednesday in front of the sports center, angry at having been expelled.
Healey told a news conference: “We are here today because we really have no other choice.”
Wu added: “There is pain and recognition that this is not the first time the community has been asked to sacrifice.” “We will work with the state to make sure all options are on the table.”
Last week, about 100 migrant men, women and children camped out at Boston’s main international airport as the state’s shelter system reached capacity in November and Healey pleaded with the federal government to do more to help.
Images obtained by CBS News It showed rows of people sleeping on the floor. One woman, Keturah Douze, said she had been collecting hygiene products to try to help them.
“While they’re at the airport they don’t have access to a shower, so there are bath wipes, little wipes, just to clean themselves while they wait,” he said.
The scenes at the Boston airport replicated those at Chicago’s O’Hare. As of Jan. 4, there were 216 immigrants sleeping at the airport, WGN 9 reported.
Massachusetts shelters reached capacity in November, with 7,500 families in their system. Some are now housed in hospital waiting rooms and church halls.
Immigrants are seen sleeping rough at Boston’s Logan Airport in the international terminal.
Maura Healey, the Democratic governor, last week asked the federal government for more help with the arrival of immigrants.
Healey demanded on Jan. 22 that the federal government do more to help. In November, when migrants were stranded at the airport and seeking shelter, the airport’s general manager said the situation was “not sustainable.”
‘We need DC to act. We need Congress to act,’ he said at a press conference.
“The path is there in terms of what needs to be done to fix the border situation, fix some of the asylum processes and get much-needed funding to some of the interior states that have had to bear the burden of a problem that is geopolitical and is not the work of the State.
Healey called for an additional $250 million in funding to address the crisis this year.
His office estimates the crisis could cost Massachusetts $915 million next year.
Healey praised airport staff and state police for their help with the immigrants.
‘The airport has been a wonderful partner and I really want to thank the people at the airport who are doing a wonderful job, including members of the state police who work their regular shifts but who manage people coming in and out of the airport. ,’ she said.
Immigrants are shown sleeping at Logan Airport in November. The CEO said the situation was not sustainable and kicked them out, but they have returned.
Immigrants are seen camping at a state transportation building in Boston, while shelters are full.
In November, Massport interim CEO Ed Freni told reporters that the airport “is not an appropriate place” for migrants to stay, as 20 to 25 a day were arriving and some were seen sleeping in the facilities.
“When they come to Logan, we meet with them and try to help them, but we have to emphasize that Logan is not an appropriate place to house people,” Freni told reporters.
The airport is working with partners to transport migrants to reception centers and is looking for “other solutions in the future,” Freni said.
Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, has been sending buses full of immigrants from the north of his state since 2022, so that Democratic mayors and governors can share his struggle and to put pressure on Joe Biden.
The policy has worked: Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, has been particularly outspoken in demanding that Biden, a fellow Democrat, do more.
New York City has seen 33,600 of the 90,000 immigrants Abbott sent north. Most of the rest have gone to Chicago and Washington DC.
Abbott has not sent buses to Boston, but many immigrants, struggling in those already overrun cities, have landed in Boston.
In August, Healey declared a state of emergency in his state.
He said 80 percent more immigrants had arrived compared to the previous year.
“It’s exponentially more than our state has ever served in our emergency assistance program,” he said.
“These numbers are being driven by an increase in newcomers to our country who have been through some of the most difficult journeys imaginable.”