Massachusetts authorities placed migrant children with registered sexual predators, a Boston Globe investigation found.
According to a Boston Globe article, an investigation by the newspaper suggests the state failed to vet hotels across the state before placing migrant families among the suspected predators.
“Over the past month, the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities – the agency that oversees the Homeless Families Housing Program – has rejected the Globe's requests for information on sex offenders in shelters,” the Globe reported. “The Globe requested this information as part of an extensive review because the agency's contracts require hotel providers to screen sex offenders, but not ban them.”
“After the Globe independently identified the sex offenders and requested their comments, a spokesperson said Thursday evening that the agency was in the process of deporting the individuals. None are migrants,” the Globe reported.
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The Comfort Inn, located at 850 Hingham Street in Rockland, Massachusetts, is part of a state/federal program to house migrants. (Google Maps)
The newspaper reported that a shocking number of hotels across the Bay State had sexual predators mixing with migrant children.
At least five of the hotels and one dormitory that the state used as homeless shelters also housed or employed sex offenders who were convicted of crimes against children, including child rape, molestation, modesty and assault and battery on children, and child pornography.
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The Globe noted that four of the five identified predators not only lived among children but were also employed by hotels.
The newspaper said none of the registered sex offenders were immigrants.
A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities confirmed to the Globe that it routinely checks shelter addresses with the Sex Offender Registry Council every six months so providers can notify families.
The agency said the most recent check was carried out in March.
Maura Healey, Governor of Massachusetts, announced that the Chelsea Soldiers' Home would be transformed into a facility for migrants. (Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Google Maps/Screenshot)
News of predators living among vulnerable children came after Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey assured residents that “all persons” entering migrant housing had been thoroughly “vetted” after a Haitian migrant was raped a disabled 15-year-old girl in a hotel in March.
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“Everyone, including him, who enters our shelters is screened,” she told reporters in March.
Local authorities in Rockland, Massachusetts, arrested Cory Alvarez, 26, a Haitian national, and charged him with rape after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at a Comfort Inn.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, flanked by fellow Democrats Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ronald Mariano, announced Monday, March 25, 2024, at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston, that homeless families staying in overflow shelters will soon have to provide documents every month. their efforts to find a way out of the overflow shelter system, including looking for housing or employment, or taking English classes. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc)
The migrant crisis is an ongoing crisis for Massachusetts.
The state's newest emergency shelter, located in Roxbury, a neighborhood in Boston, reached its capacity to house 400 people in just one week last month.
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New York City, Chicago and New York State all made emergency declarations last year and called for help in response to the migrant crisis.
Fox News Digital reached out to Healey's office, the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for comment.