Gov. Charlie Baker said Monday that the state is still waiting for guidance from the federal government on how to better serve the influx of migrants from Haiti who have been showing up in Massachusetts, often without the exact documentation they need to qualify for services.
Baker and all 11 members of the state’s Congressional delegation wrote two separate letters to the Biden administration three weeks ago seeking clarity on how best to assist these individuals who have left Haiti and are showing up in shelters and emergency rooms.
The governor, in his letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, asked the federal government for help estimating how many people and families to expect, and what types of documentation can be used to verify their status and qualify them for state and federal benefits to which they might be entitled.
U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and the House delegation, followed that up with a letter asking Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Cindy Huang for her full cooperation with the state.
“We are waiting for more information from the feds,” Baker said Monday, during an appearance on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.
Baker has contrasted what is happening with migrants from Haiti to the more predictable and controlled process of resettling refugees from Afghanistan.
“We want to help these people and I would love to have a lot more guidance and a lot more structure from the feds around both what benefits they’re eligible for and how we’re going to actually get to the point where we can actually plan a little bit around this and not feel like we’re just scrambling all the time,” Baker said.
(Copyright (c) 2024 State House News Service.