Paris Alston: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. Friday, the Healey administration announced that migrant families who’d been sleeping in Logan Airport overnight would no longer be able to do so. It’s the latest in the state’s response to an influx of migrants, and comes as immigration remains a focal point from Beacon Hill to the presidential debate stage last week. Joining us now is someone who’s been on the front lines of responding to this influx and helping migrants since long before: Gladys Vega, executive director of La Collaborative in Chelsea. Hello. Good morning and thank you for being here.

Gladys Vega: Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

Alston: So, Gladys, obviously, as I mentioned, this discussion has been in the news in recent months. How would you describe this current wave of immigration and how it compares to years past in the state?

Vega: Sure. We cannot deny that this is totally different, that this indeed is a humanitarian crisis, that in my 35 years working at La Colaborativa, I had never, ever imagined that we were going to get an influx of migrants in the amount that we have received them.

Alston: And you, as I mentioned, have been on the front lines. GBH News took a tour of an overflow shelter that opened at the Chelsea Soldiers’ Home site a few months ago, which you helped set up. Now state officials have called this a successful model. Why has it worked?

Vega: I think it has worked because we immediately incorporated the values of La Colaborativa, values based on financial sustainability and mobility. A career path. These individuals that are coming in, they know at least three languages. Their children know French Creole, Spanish, and they will immediately learn English. The majority of them, they have been granted work authorization. So I have no, no doubt that these individuals will contribute drastically to the economy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and as a whole, to the United States. It’s just that I have never, ever imagined how much preparation we needed to do, and also that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, under the administration of Healey and Driscoll, will be the ones taking so much of this crisis on their own, meaning that other states did not step up to these challenges. And we did. And we did it with love, compassion, respect and dignity. But it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work. And that is why I’m not surprised on the July 9 deadline.

Alston: And why do you think other states are not taking up this challenge while Massachusetts is?

Vega: So respectfully — and this is me always thinking and trying to analyze this whole situation. I think that others, they didn’t because they want to probably send Massachusetts, I don’t know, a message that New York and Massachusetts, if you’re states that are friendly to migrants and to poor people, well, then you handle them. But I also think I have to tell you honestly: That it is not just new migrants that we are receiving. It is people that have been in these other states 2 to 3 years. Some of them have been a longer period working in those states, and they have not been able to succeed. And they are looking at Massachusetts as that state that may offer better resources. But in saying that, I mean that those other states keep taxes that they didn’t ask back that, you know, they didn’t file. Those states also have been very, very, very — they washed their hands off this process when they also are receiving migrants. And they’re just putting them on a plane or sending them to South Station and sending them, I mean, we got four families that are getting stopped by Logan Airport this past Friday, and three of them had been working in other states for at least 2 or 3 years.

Alston: And this is all playing into this idea that Massachusetts has become a sort of sanctuary state. And as you’re describing the governor, the administration, has leaned into that and is responding to this need, even though it is overburdening our social systems. So when people are critical of the way that Massachusetts is handling this influx in terms of asking, well, how much can our systems bear? What do you say to that? What do you say to, you know, we’ve got churches we have now a former prison in Norfolk that’s looking to set up a shelter, or there has set up a shelter there, but there are questions about how much the state can actually do.

Vega: So you know, it’s correct. People have every right to think that way. It’s very unfortunate the fruits of this group of migrants that will come to work, and will make it, you know, we not going to see them right away. We’re probably going to see them over time. The most important thing about this journey is that we have done what we can believe in our heart, that we have done whatever it was possible under the resources that we have. But people also have to understand that when they come, when they decide — and these are migrants, these are families. They said that when they come to Massachusetts, please understand that there’s no housing affordable for the residents that have been here for decades or the citizens. The resources are very, very limited. And that that is why, if you’re not going to come to Massachusetts with a plan, would a family member that would allow you to stay with them and that will guide you through etcetera, and that you have at least a job that is guaranteed or whatever, please find 48 other states in the in the in United States, because Massachusetts has done everything possible to help the humankind, and they’re not able to continue at the volumes that we’ve been doing it.

Alston: So, Gladys, I mentioned that immigration was obviously one of the forefront issues at last week’s presidential debate. Both President Biden and former President Trump have very different approaches to this issue. What would you like to see happen?

Vega: So I really think that one of the issues that we have is that we have been ignoring the immigration reform issues for decades. I would say that I’ve been at this job for 35 years, that we probably said that probably has been over 60 years or so, that have been a little bit of immigration recourse in terms of some type of status. I think that by ignoring immigration reform, we are literally digging a larger hole. When we can really, really figure out how do we legalize those that have been here? How do we put together, like, more funding in the federal immigration system, that all those 2 million or 3 million people that are waiting to get legalization, that have done everything to file all those applications that we also have contributed, meet I many people in the Commonwealth and in all the other states, have filed for legal rest. If they put more work on that and begin to process them, then those family members can petition their family. But as long as we continue this, we continue to ignore federal legislation, this is the mess that we’re in. And it’s so blamed by the federal administration.

Alston: We will have to stop it there. Gladys Vega, executive director of LA Collaborative in Chelsea, thank you so much.

Vega: Thank you.

Alston: You’re listening to GBH news.

 

On Friday, the Healey administration announced that migrant families who’d been sleeping in Logan Airport overnight would no longer be able to do so.

It’s the latest in the state’s response to an influx of migrants, and comes as immigration remains a focal point from Beacon Hill to last week’s presidential debate stage.

State officials have called La Colaborativa’s shelter, housed at the former Soldiers’ Home in Chelsea, a successful model. That’s because the nonprofit takes the long view and works to get people on a sustainable path to stability,“ Gladys Vega, the executive director, said.

“We cannot deny that this is totally different, that this indeed is a humanitarian crisis,” Vega told GBH’s Morning Edition co-host Paris Alston. “In my 35 years working at La Colaborativa, I had never, ever imagined that we were going to get an influx of migrants in the amount that we have received them.”

The organization does the work with “love, compassion, respect and dignity. But it’s a lot of work,” she said.

“The majority of them [migrants], they have been granted work authorization. So I have no, no doubt that these individuals will contribute drastically to the economy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and as a whole, to the United States,” Vega said. “It’s just that I have never, ever imagined how much preparation we needed to do, and also that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, under the administration of Healey and Driscoll, will be the ones taking so much of this crisis on their own, meaning that other states did not step up to these challenges.”

Massachusetts is not always the first stop for people, Vega said. Some migrants have been in the U.S. for two or three years, and have tried finding work and stable housing in other states before ending up at La Colaborativa.

“They are looking at Massachusetts as that state that may offer better resources,” Vega said. “[Other states] washed their hands off this process when they also are receiving migrants. And they’re just putting them on a plane or sending them to South Station.”

For months, Massachusetts has struggled to house both new arrivals to the U.S. and longtime residents pushed out of their homes by high costs. It’s raised questions about how much the state can actually do.

“People have every right to think that way,” Vega said. “It’s very unfortunate the fruits of this group of migrants that will come to work, and will make it, we are not going to see them right away. We’re probably going to see them over time. The most important thing about this journey is that we have done what we can believe in our heart, that we have done whatever it was possible under the resources that we have.”

She also suggested that people who are considering coming to Massachusetts or New York think carefully about their choices.

“Please understand that there’s no housing affordable for the residents that have been here for decades or the citizens. The resources are very, very limited,” she said. “If you’re not going to come to Massachusetts with a plan, with a family member that would allow you to stay with them and that will guide you through, etcetera, and that you have at least a job that is guaranteed or whatever, please find 48 other states in the in the in United States, because Massachusetts has done everything possible to help the humankind, and they’re not able to continue at the volumes that we’ve been doing it.”

Ultimately, she said, the answer will have to come from federal immigration policy, which has not been meaningfully reformed in decades.

She suggested a path to citizenship for people who are already here, dealing with bureaucratic backlogs and allowing immigrants already in the U.S. to petition to bring over family members.

“By ignoring immigration reform, we are literally digging a larger hole,” she said.