Blue state leader sounds alarm about ‘perfect storm' of Dem immigration policies decimating public safety
Massachusetts state Sen. Ryan Fattman, a Republican, is sounding the alarm about the impact of a "perfect storm" of Democratic policies he says are decimating public safety while simultaneously driving up the cost of living.
One policy – instituted by the 2017 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling Lunn vs. Commonwealth – bars local and state law enforcement agencies from assisting with immigration enforcement.
Under the ruling, law enforcement are also not allowed to honor ICE "detainer" requests, often forcing police departments and sheriffs' offices to release dangerous criminal illegals onto the streets without notifying ICE.
This has led to ICE having to re-arrest several criminal illegals charged with such crimes as child rape and fentanyl trafficking after they were released by Massachusetts law enforcement agencies for bail as low as $500 or no bail at all.
Fattman told Fox News Digital that these cases are not isolated but rather "are happening across the commonwealth."
He also pointed to a Massachusetts "Right to Shelter" law, which has led to the creation of a vast network of migrant shelters that has cost the state upwards of $3 billion in taxpayer dollars since 2021. Whistleblowers have also called attention to "rampant abuse" of the shelter system by migrants, including instances of drug trafficking and a father repeatedly raping and even impregnating his teenage daughter.
A public records request by the Boston Globe resulted in an over 3,000-page document detailing cases of rape, domestic violence, assault and other crimes being perpetuated by illegals living in the state-funded shelter system.
"You have a perfect storm that's happening in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," said Fattman. "We have 3,000 pages of public safety incidents, 3 billion plus dollars spent on the taxpayers' dime, and cities and towns across the commonwealth that are literally going broke."
He placed the onus for the state of the crisis on Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, as well as the Democratic majority legislature.
"Ninety-nine percent of political asylum cases in our immigration courts get rejected," he said. "So, the premise that these individuals will come to the commonwealth, and many of whom are good people, and that they might be able to work here, make lives here, it's not true. So, we have spent $3 billion on 99% of people who are never going to be legal residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We have lit the money on fire, and that is wrong."
"This is insanity, and it must change," he continued. "People are tired of this. They want safety for their children and their families. They want to be able to walk down the street and know that there's nothing bad that's going to happen to them, that they can work hard and get ahead. And that is not happening in the commonwealth."
In efforts to curb the insanity, Fattman introduced a bill called the "Shield Act" that would essentially overturn the Lunn decision by authorizing local and state law enforcement agencies to work with ICE to ensure criminal illegal immigrants are kept off the streets.
Though Massachusetts is a solid blue state, Fattman is optimistic that citizens are going to demand change from their leaders one way or another.
"This is, I think, a situation that has become untenable politically for many people," he said, adding that the Lunn decision specifically says that the "legislature needs to create a law in order for this law to exist, that no law exists so, therefore, the ICE detainers don't have to be honored and the remedy is the legislature acting."
"Massachusetts is viewed as a blue state, but there are large, large swaths of purple and red parts of the state and those places are just fed up," he went on. "They're fed up as individuals watching the headlines, seeing that their neighbors being assaulted, pregnant women are being injured at the hands of people who are not lawfully present in our state or country."
"To add insult to injury, we have said, come here, we'll pay for you, for your food, for your education, for your healthcare, and for your shelter, and it's cost billions of dollars," he added. "We're getting to a critical mass where the pressure points are about at explosion."
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