Dozens of migrant families spending nights at Boston's Logan Airport, sleeping on floor
BOSTON - Months after Massport's Interim CEO said that Logan Airport is "not an appropriate place" to house migrant families, a WBZ-TV photographer captured dozens of families sleeping under blankets in a corner of Terminal E, the airport's international terminal.
Keturah Douze, a Medford woman who is in contact with some of the migrants, estimates that there are roughly 100 people there. She said many families have young children. Douze has been collecting items to help with cleanliness.
"A lot of well care stuff because while they're at the airport they don't have access to a shower so there's like some shower wipes, little towels just to clean up while they wait," she said.
Sources tell WBZ's I-Team that Massachusetts State Police are being paid overtime to assist at Logan overnight.
"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," Governor Maura Healey told reporters at a news conference Monday.
The state hit its capacity to assist 7,500 families in its emergency shelter system in November and is now putting families on a waitlist. Healey has long called on the federal government to assist with the crisis.
"We need D.C. to act. We need Congress to act. 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," she said Monday.
Healey asked for an additional $250 million in funds to address the crisis this year. Her office estimates the crisis could cost Massachusetts $915 million next year. She's expected to submit another supplemental budget soon and propose funding some of the crisis with a $700 million state surplus fund.
On Monday, the House Speaker and State Senate President said it is too soon to say whether they will support that plan.
Senate President Karen Spilka said she is waiting for action from Washington, D.C.
"Biden did submit a budget to Congress that would include some funding, millions of dollars in funding for states going through issues with an increase in migrants," Spilka said.
