The Healey administration shelled out more than $6,800 to send a five-person team to the southern border in Texas to “educate” people of a shelter shortage here, according to her office.

The trip was pitched as another attempt to curtail the number of migrants arriving in Massachusetts and make connections with federal immigration officials who were dealing with a surge in border crossings down south.

A spokesperson for the governor said Friday the group spent a total of $6,804 on the four-day trip this week, including $2,028 on hotels, $3,903 on flights, and $872 on ground transportation.

Scott Rice, a retired National Guard general who oversees the state-run shelter system, said the trip was an “important opportunity to meet with families arriving in the U.S. and the organizations that work with them at the border to make sure they have accurate information about the lack of shelter space in Massachusetts.”

“It is essential that we get the word out that our shelters are full so that families can plan accordingly to make sure they have a safe place to go,” he said in a statement earlier this week.

The group visited locations in San Antonio, McAllen, Hidalgo, and Brownsville, the most common points of entry for migrant families that later arrive in Massachusetts, according to the Healey administration.

Healey said earlier this week that the trip was “successful” even as conservatives criticized the move as a “publicity stunt.”

“We don’t have housing available right now, and we wanted to be really clear. It’s something I’ve been saying for a long time, but I think it was important that we be able to communicate directly with folks on the ground,” she said. “I think it’s successful. I think it’s important that we be out there with that message.”

Details on how much the trip cost were released only hours after Gov. Maura Healey banned migrants from sleeping at Logan Airport, where large groups have gathered for months to stay overnight.

The directive takes effect July 9 and the state plans to offer people at the airport transportation to overflow shelter sites, including one that opened this week at a former prison in Norfolk.

Healey did not say if police would arrest those that violate the order.

“We’re going to take it as it comes. My hope is through the work that we’re doing and the extensive communication that we’re doing right now with folks, not just at the border, but folks who are in our service provider community, that we’re going to get people relocated,” she said Friday, “and also be clear to people who might think about coming here that this really is an option.”

Massachusetts gas prices fell for the second consecutive week and reached an average of $3.40 per gallon of regular fuel on Monday, down from last week’s price of $3.44 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The average fuel price in the state has fallen about 11 cents since last month. According to the EIA, gas prices across the state in the last year have been as low as $3.07 on Jan. 29 and as high as $3.76 on Aug. 7, 2023.

A year ago, the average gas price in Massachusetts was 3% higher at $3.51 per gallon.

>> INTERACTIVE: See how your area’s gas prices have changed over the years at data.capecodtimes.com.

The average gas price in the United States last week was $3.44, making prices in the state about 1% lower than the nation’s average. The average national gas price is up from last week’s average of $3.44 per gallon.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Please leave any feedback or corrections for this story here. This story was written by Ozge Terzioglu.

For the city kids who didn’t get to play soccer, tennis, basketball, or track and field at the Melnea Cass Recreational Complex in Roxbury all spring, it’s probably tough to understand that the reason is because a bunch of adults almost 500 miles away can’t get their act together. They’d likely be similarly confused to learn that their fieldhouse became a shelter for dozens of vulnerable kids who came to America because adults in their native countries couldn’t get it right there either.

When I lived in Roxbury while attending law school, after becoming the first in my family to graduate high school and college, I played ball at Washington Park (also known as Malcom X Park), usually the only white guy, and probably with the dads of some of the kids barred from the Cass complex the last few months, before it finally reopened last week.

Before that, I was an inner-city kid myself with limited access to sports facilities, and even fewer avenues out of what was then, and remains, one of the most impoverished and dangerous neighborhoods in America.

So the Cass complex’s conversion to a migrant shelter really hit home.

I recently visited Yuma, Arizona, where I was stationed during my time as a U.S. Marine Judge Advocate, to witness the problem firsthand. The crisis I saw there, which is hurting working families here in Massachusetts, is two-fold: national security and humanitarian.

As much as 50% of the fentanyl tearing apart our communities comes through Yuma, Arizona. Not only is Washington’s inability to solve this crisis hurting those who already live in America, but the migrants being trafficked alongside it are also at risk. Asylum seekers hoping for a better life in the U.S. face a treacherous journey at the hands of the cartels. Women and children are raped or abused by traffickers who don’t care if they survive.

Congressional inability to address the serious problems facing this country is no longer a theoretical exercise or a punchline; it’s harming our kids’ development and quality of life. In Massachusetts, we see other tangible impacts. Governor Maura Healey has projected the emergency shelter program will cost nearly $1 billion next fiscal year, in addition to $700 million already spent this year, while our state’s one-party leaders have implored their counterparts in Washington – like Senator Elizabeth Warren – to address this exploding crisis.

What else could that $1.7 billion be doing in Massachusetts? How about repairing our roads and transit system, in such dangerous disrepair? Or ameliorating the educational crisis? In Boston, our kids aren’t just losing access to the Cass complex; the school district itself is teetering on receivership.

Do you think the rest of the state might benefit from $1.7 billion to help combat an upswing in violent crime? In 2022, the most recent year for which federal data is available, violent crime in Massachusetts rose, while dropping nationwide. Some of the alleged perpetrators made their way into Massachusetts by claiming to be refugees before committing violent crimes. Police departments, diversion programs, substance abuse and recovery efforts – all of these could benefit from precious state funds now being funneled into a problem that Washington created and refuses to fix.

Working families are suffering because of Washington dysfunction, and no amount of press releases, viral videos, or soundbites will fix that. Nor will new taxes from cannabis, gambling, or millionaires.

That’s a big reason I’m running against Senator Warren this year; it’s not just that Washington is broken, it’s that Washington is breaking great states like Massachusetts. Senator Warren voted against the bipartisan border legislation, voting with MAGA Republicans to sink the bill at the cost of her own constituents. Even worse, Senator Warren is talking out of both sides of her mouth on the issue.

This is the problem with Washington politicians – on both sides of the aisle. They become beholden to the special interest groups who exact outlandish policy promises to help them win primaries while red and blue states become even more polarized. It’s a cynical way to run a country, and those who have become a part of it should examine whether they’ve stayed true to their promise to voters.

I am running to be your senator to stand up for the poor and middle class. I have fought for the underdog my entire life, and I’ll do the same in the Senate. This era of gridlock and cynicism has to end.

The kids who run and play ball at the Cass complex don’t deserve to lose another season.

John Deaton is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and an attorney specializing in representing asbestos victims suffering from mesothelioma.