Cape Cod lawmaker proposes plan to ease state migrant crisis

Editor's Note: This story was updated on Oct. 11, 2023, to clarify that Susan Baracchini was sharing her personal views and not those of the village association she is a member of.

As Massachusetts continues to see an influx of migrants, several state and local leaders are urging Congress to pass legislation to ease the demands on the shelter system and reform the nation’s immigration laws.

State Rep. Steven G. Xiarhos, R-Barnstable, joined several lawmakers in signing a federal legal immigration reform letter to President Biden and Congress, emphasizing two national crises: an overwhelmed emergency shelter system and a labor shortage. With more than 22,000 migrants in the state’s shelter system lacking work authorization, and about 240,000 open positions among employers nationally, lawmakers are pushing the federal government to quicken the process for asylum seekers in hopes of an improved system.

A national crisis 'New normal': High number of migrants crossing border not likely to slow

On Cape Cod, more than 100 shelter units have been tapped for migrants, including units that range from apartments to motels. With 62 families, Joint Base Cape Cod is at capacity, adding to the strain the state is experiencing — more than 5,600 families are living in state-funded shelters, 80% higher than a year ago.

Right to Shelter: narrowing eligibility to U.S. citizens

Xiarhos filed a bill to amend the Massachusetts Right to Shelter Act, a law that guarantees emergency housing to homeless families and pregnant women, but not homeless individuals. The law has been tested recently in terms of the eligibility of migrant families.

The act defines a “resident” as "any person in the Commonwealth, even if they didn't intend on staying permanently." Under these terms, U.S. citizens qualify with documentation, and noncitizens qualify if they are "lawfully admitted for permanent residence or otherwise permanently residing under color of law in the U.S."

Xiarhos’ bill would narrow eligibility to U.S. citizens by adding the following sentence: “Notwithstanding any general or special law, rule or regulation to the contrary, the emergency housing assistance program established herein shall be available only to residents of the commonwealth who are citizens of the United States.”

In his recent guest column, Xiarhos explains how “this law is meant only to shelter citizens of our nation in time of need, not to play politics with federal immigration failures.” He thinks that the Cape Cod community should not be expected to support migrants, especially if they are not taxpayers or documented immigrants. He added that housing migrants in hotels and motels could be a threat to public safety in terms of health.

'We have responsibility to treat them humanely'

Matthew Lee, a partner of Tocci & Lee, LLC, a Cape Cod and Boston-based human resource law firm that provides services to global businesses in immigration and employment law, said the term “citizen” is "a little bit overly broad because you have people here that are lawful permanent resident green card holders that would be excluded from this fair housing law."

"You're also excluding other people that are lawfully entitled to live in and work in the United States, one of which is lawful permanent residents," he said, "so I think it's overly broad to include only U.S. citizens.”

He added that a part of the solution could include spreading the burden among other states, reassessing the country’s asylum system and creating more work visas.

“I think we as a country need to assess whether we're going to allow asylees and refugees,” Lee said. “It's my understanding that we've signed on to international treaties and U.N. resolutions, we've agreed to participate in asylees and refugees and until that changes, we have responsibility to treat them humanely, have a process.”

Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, agrees that protections should apply to more than U.S. citizens.

“A lot of protections we have, legal protections, are not just civil rights, they are for people,” Horowitz said. “This is true of the U.S. Constitution, it's true of state law, it's true of our criminal justice systems like we don't say that only citizens get the things we do.”

Xiarhos bill supporter: 'I believe he's doing the right thing.'

Others support Xiarhos’ bill and blame the state’s housing shortage for the crisis.

“I support 110%. I believe he’s doing the right thing” said Susan Baracchini of Pocasset. “We don't have affordable housing and the entire Cape is losing workforce capabilities, so on one hand if they were all coming legally, that's great because they could join the workforce, but we don't know what skills they're coming with and what areas they could fill the jobs, so it's a work shortage, an employee shortage and a housing shortage.”

Baracchini also spoke out about local motels on the Cape that were asked to kick out people in order to house migrants coming into Massachusetts. In response, several protests were held, including in Yarmouth and Dennis.

“One of our local motel owners spoke out, saying he had to kick out people who were paying summer dollars, summer rates, tourist rates to reduce his income ability in a season where this is his prime income time,” Baracchini said. “If they are not paying their way, they can't come and stay."

She thinks migrants must "go through the process to get here" before they can come live in the United States and that it's in the government's best interest "to stop allowing this.”

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Cape Cod lawmaker files bill to address migrant crisis