Maura Healey's Massachusetts just freed an illegal alien who beat a man with a baseball bat.
That's the state that's also bleeding 33,000 residents a year – most of them young people.
The pattern isn't hard to see: Healey is choosing migrants over Massachusetts.
ICE Had to Do It Alone
On May 18, ICE agents arrested Dhaval Amratbhai Patel – an illegal alien from India – in Worcester after he used a baseball bat to attack a man during an argument.
State authorities had already arrested Patel for the assault.
Then they released him.
ICE had to go in without any help from local or state officials to pick him up themselves.
"This illegal alien from India thought he could go around beating people with a baseball bat," said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "Sanctuary politicians released him from jail after his arrest for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Sanctuary politicians must stop choosing to release criminals into our communities and work with DHS to get criminals out of country. By refusing to cooperate with ICE law enforcement, sanctuary politicians are putting the safety of their citizens at risk."
The baseball bat case isn't an exception.
It's the policy.
That same month, ICE arrested gang members, drug traffickers, and other violent criminal illegal aliens across Massachusetts – every single one without state or local cooperation.
One of those: Kleber Lasso, an illegal alien from Ecuador convicted of soliciting to commit murder.
The Brockton District Court ignored ICE's detainer and released him anyway.
ICE tracked him down themselves.
Another: Senat Dufren, an illegal alien from Haiti, previously arrested for assault and battery.
Local authorities released him despite an ICE detainer.
He then attacked a pregnant woman.
"These sanctuary politicians are playing Russian roulette with American lives," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
Healey's response has been to claim ICE only targets peaceful, non-violent migrants.
She said that with a straight face.
A Billion Dollars for Migrants While Bay Staters Head for the Door
Here's what a billion dollars buys in Massachusetts.
Healey's emergency shelter program crossed the $1 billion mark for fiscal year 2025 alone – money originally meant to help Massachusetts families facing housing emergencies.
Instead, it went to free housing, food, education aid, legal services, and National Guard security for migrant families at nearly $3,500 per family per week.
That's your money.
When critics noticed the shelter program was blowing up the budget, Healey didn't shut it down.
She shifted the costs.
She quietly funneled migrants into the HomeBASE program – originally designed to keep Massachusetts families off the street – and watched enrollment explode from roughly 1,500 families in early 2023 to over 7,700 by spring 2025.
Spending in that program jumped from $9.5 million to $97 million over the same period.
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Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio found Healey was running the whole operation on unlawful no-bid contracts.
That included tens of millions that went to a company providing Mercedes taxi service for migrants and a restaurant whose owner had donated over $10,000 to Healey's campaign.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Republican Party documented more than $25 million in outright fraud that Healey has said almost nothing about.
That's $12 million in public benefits fraud, $7 million in SNAP fraud, $1 million in pandemic waste, $1 million in MassHealth and Social Security fraud, and a state transportation payroll scheme still being tallied.
"It is beyond irresponsible that in seven instances of fraud, totaling over $25 million in taxpayer dollars, Governor Maura Healey has been largely silent," Massachusetts Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Carnevale said.
Healey called MassHealth a program with "strong program integrity."
Young People Are Leaving and They Aren't Coming Back
The real verdict on Healey's Massachusetts isn't in a poll. It's in a moving truck.
Massachusetts lost 33,340 residents to other states in just the last year – nearly double the prior year's losses.
Since 2020, the state has shed 182,000 people.
That's not a trend. That's a collapse.
The people leaving aren't retirees heading to Florida for the weather.
They're 26-to-34-year-olds – the engineers, the skilled workers, the young families who build an economy.
They're going to Florida, Texas, and New Hampshire.
And the research is blunt: the economic damage from losing that generation "will affect the state for decades to come."
Massachusetts private sector employment is still below 2019 levels.
The state has trailed the national average in GDP growth for consecutive quarters.
U-Haul ranked it among the top five states for out-migration.
"Massachusetts is disproportionately losing young adults, higher earners, and skilled workers – the exact talent that powers our innovation economy," Carnevale said. "The Healey administration's refusal to confront these failures is accelerating talent and revenue loss, threatening Massachusetts' long-term competitiveness."
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Here's what Healey has actually done.
She spent a billion dollars housing people who entered the country illegally.
She shielded convicted felons from deportation.
She watched $25 million disappear in fraud and called it "strong program integrity."
And she released a man who beat someone with a baseball bat – and he did it again.
Young Americans are leaving Massachusetts because Healey made her choice.
She chose migrants over them. She made it every single day, and she'd make it again tomorrow.
Boston Republican Mike Minogue secured 16,669 petition signatures to challenge Healey for governor – more than any other candidate in the race.
Massachusetts voters are paying attention.
The only question now is whether Healey will face accountability before there's nobody left to vote her out.
Sources:
- Lauren Bis, "ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Who Attacked Victim with Baseball Bat in Worcester," Department of Homeland Security, May 18, 2025.
- Tricia McLaughlin, "ICE Arrests Gang Members, Drug Traffickers, Violent Criminal Illegal Aliens in Sanctuary State Massachusetts," Department of Homeland Security, May 19, 2025.
- Brooke Taylor, "ICE Arrests Illegal Aliens Previously Released in Sanctuary Massachusetts," Fox News, May 16, 2025.
- Michael Dorgan, "Migrant Influx Pushing Mass. Shelter Costs Past $1B in FY25," Fox News, June 18, 2025.
- Peter Pinedo, "$30K in Migrant Housing Aid Has Dem Gov on Hot Seat for Revolving Door Policy," Fox News, August 7, 2025.
- Amy Carnevale, Massachusetts Republican Party Press Release, May 27, 2026.
- Pioneer Institute, "The Massachusetts Labor Force: Now and Beyond," February 2026.