The Attorney General’s office announced today a new Elder Justice Unit focused on educating and advocating for elders. Mary Freeley will direct the unit.
“We'll continue to, with our community engagement division, get out there to educate consumers about the new scams, the latest scams, so that they don't fall prey to those,” Freeley said. “But we'll also ... be a central focus of the office for these types of questions and complaints.”
The unit will coordinate among the AGs other offices working on elder issues, including Medicaid fraud and scams, to address a variety of issues for elders.
“You should be able to go to one place … to go and get the information you need,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said on Boston Public Radio on Friday. If the AG's office is not directly involved in the matter, Campbell said the Elder Justice Unit will refer people to the appropriate services and information.
On BPR, Campbell also weighed in on immigration. On Wednesday, the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security as part of a multi-state effort asking the federal government to expedite the employment process for people coming to the U.S.
These are people who have entered the country legally and are in emergency shelters and housing.
“They want to leave that housing and frankly, start their lives,” Campbell said. But the federal government is taking too long to process work authorization permits, taking ten months in some cases, Campbell said.
The letter also asked the government to allow people to start working without a permit while they wait for their application to process.
“If we want to be able to ease the burden on this system, we have to get these folks to be able to work,” she said. With income, people can start paying for their own housing and move out of the emergency shelters.
This comes as Gov. Maura Healey announced a state of emergency last week in response to the record number of migrants stressing the shelter systems.
Campbell said inaction by Congress on immigration reform limits the number of pathways new arrivals can take, yet the AG acknowledged that comprehensive reform is not needed to expedite the work authorization process — the Biden Administration has direct authority. Campbell said she’s confident they will work with her office “to get this right” and streamline the process.
“But we still need it to be able to meet the needs of what we're seeing in other countries and of course, meet the needs of the families who are coming here,” Campbell said about the need for larger immigration reform.
