Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey introduced that every one state-run shelters might be inspected and their insurance policies reviewed after a migrant was discovered with 10 kilos of fentanyl and a large-capacity rifle.
Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, 28, was arrested in Revere, Mass. on Dec. 27 with an estimated $1 million price of fentanyl, an AR-15 loaded with .556 ammunition, and three massive capability rifle magazines, the Revere Police Division introduced final week.
Sanchez, a Dominican nationwide who immigrated illegally, had been at a hotel-turned-homeless shelter searching for a room when officers caught him.
“This particular person endangered occupants of the resort, on-site employees, public security personnel and the neighborhood at massive,” Chief David Callahan mentioned.
“His arrest underscores our dedication to work tirelessly to guard our neighborhood from these dealing lethal Fentanyl and possessing unlawful firearms,” mentioned Callahan.
Healey ordered that every one the state shelters be investigated within the wake of Sanchez’s arrest at a High quality Inn — and amid fierce backlash from the Home Republican Caucus.
“How is it attainable an undocumented immigrant right here illegally is receiving a advantage of emergency household shelter, despite the fact that our legal guidelines don’t permit it? How is it this particular person wasn’t flagged in a so-called complete background test upon software for shelter?” caucus members wrote to Healey.
“How is it regardless of the strict gun legal guidelines of the Commonwealth this particular person was allegedly in a position to purchase a high-capacity firearm? How was a legal enterprise being run out of a household shelter as he allegedly obtained fentanyl and cocaine that he was allegedly promoting from the shelter’s motel room?”
Sanchez was arraigned final week in Chelsea District Court docket on 10 firearm costs and trafficking in fentanyl, based on Revere police.
US Immigration and Customs’ Enforcement and Elimination Operations in Boston has filed an immigration detainer in opposition to Sanchez alongside the Revere police, based on a press launch from ICE.
Sanchez is at present in state custody, however might be transferred over to ICE when he’s launched.
Massachusetts has been embroiled in immigration complaints surrounding its state system for years, however points have spiked in current months as courts have constantly disregarded ERO Boston’s immigration detainers.
The 2017 Lunn ruling by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court docket decided that the present legislation “offers no authority for Massachusetts courtroom officers to arrest and maintain a person solely on the premise of a Federal civil immigration detainer.”
The Trial Court docket’s coverage additionally ensures that folks going into ICE custody shouldn’t be dealt with or handled any in a different way than anybody else simply because they’re with a detainer.
A Lunn response invoice was filed by Republicans within the Home and Senate in October 2024, but it surely died after no motion was taken by the tip of the time period.
Healey mentioned her administration has been in touch with native legislation enforcement and federal immigration officers about Sanchez’s case and indicated that “federal inaction” is in charge.
“This additional underscores our damaged federal immigration system and the pressing want for Congress and the White Home to behave on a border safety invoice to forestall criminals from coming into our communities,” Healey mentioned.
New York Metropolis has seen comparable points at the same time as shelters throughout the state start to shutter their doorways.
Over the summer time, one migrant shelter in Lengthy Island Metropolis was all however overrun by a teenage battle membership so raucous that residents within the space couldn’t sleep.
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