Gov. Maura Healey is right.

Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state.

It just acts like one. It’s instead a sort of haven, or heaven, for immigrants, illegal or otherwise, who have flocked here seeking refuge and welfare.

Just don’t call it a sanctuary.

“We are not a sanctuary state,” Healey said following raids by President Donald Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, and ICE last week in which some 370 wanted “illegal aliens” –including drug dealers, gun runners, murderers and rapists—were rounded up in Boston and across the state.

The newcomers to Massachusetts, with good reason, apparently thought otherwise.

And why not? Under Healey the state is spending billions of taxpayer dollars for the caring of the influx of immigrants from around the world who have sought sanctuary, or refuge, in the state. This includes free housing, food, medical care, cell phones, transportation, schooling and so on.

Only the other day Healey’s Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Lauren Jones told a State House committee hearing that Healey is seeking to spend $30 million to teach adult immigrants English under a program called English for Speakers of Other Languages.

The same committee is considering a companion bill creating a state funded Immigrant Legal Defense Fund that would provide lawyers for immigrants who face deportation, including those held in federal detention centers.

But Healey may have a point, shaky as it is. The state is not Boston, which with its Boston Trust Act which makes it a sanctuary city.

The act prohibits Boston cops from making arrests of illegal immigrants or holding them based on ICE immigration detainers. The cops are also prohibited from even asking people about their immigration status.

Even though the act does not apply to the state, a 2017 decision by the Supreme Judicial Court does apply by making Massachusetts a safe harbor for migrants wanted by ICE— or at least it did before Homan came to town.

The court held that the state court officers are not legally permitted to arrest or hold immigrants wanted by ICE on detainers. The ruling is interpreted to apply to all state and local law enforcement officials as well.

If that does not make Massachusetts a sanctuary state, then perhaps the loose interpretation, or outright ignoring, by the Healey administration of the state’s so-called “Right to Shelter” law, does.

This is the 1983 law (ACT 1983. Chap. 45, Section 1) that was passed to deal with the state’s homeless problem which back then was  small compared to today.

The law, signed by Gov. Michael Dukakis, limited the eligibility for welfare benefits only to “residents” of the state.

It says that “any such person who enters the Commonwealth solely for the purposes of obtaining benefits under this chapter shall not be considered a resident.”

This accounts why progressives like Healey, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Attorney General Andrea Campbell call immigrants “residents”’ even if they just crashed into the state and were sleeping at Logan Airport or checking in at one of Healey’s hotels.

Healey, the progressive that she is, had no choice when the alternative was to send many of the illegal immigrants arriving from around the world back to their home countries..

No progressive with a heart would dare suggest a thing, even if it could be done.

So that left President Trump, who the progressives hate, to clean up the mess that Joe Biden left behind when he opened the borders and waved millions of unvetted immigrants into the country, criminals included.

Governors like Healey, instead of attacking Trump, should be thanking him for shutting down the border, ending the immigrant invasion, and deporting the violent immigrant criminals living in the state committing horrendous crimes.

Instead, Healey, Wu and Campbell all planned to thwart the president.

Campbell even said, “Bring it on.” So, Trump did.

As Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Originally Published: March 31, 2025 at 5:15 AM EDT