Dozens of migrants arrive at a Boston hotel without notice, says mayor

Dozens of families of undocumented migrants unexpectedly showed up at a Boston hotel for relocation in the city of Methuen, Massachusetts on Friday, according to the city’s mayor. 

Methuen Mayor Neil Perry said fifty-five migrants, including 75 children, are being housed in the city’s Days Inn after being sent by the state without prior notice. 

"They are primarily from Haiti, Columbia, and Venezuela and arrived at Boston Medical Center Friday and the decision was made sometime last week to send them up to Methuen Friday," Mayor Perry said. "I can't tell you whether they're documented, legal aliens or illegal aliens. None of that information has been shared.”

“I am upset that people were placed here without my knowledge,” Mayor Perry told Boston 25 News, promising to give an update on the situation after meeting with the State Department of Housing and Community Development. 

“We have requested a meeting with (the Department of Housing and Community Development) to understand how this happened but more importantly what the plan is for these families,” Perry said in an email.

Boston’s Department of Housing and Community Development is required to provide shelter to all eligible migrant families with children under the age of 21 and pregnant women. The agency is currently sheltering several families in hotels and motels because there are no open units in the state’s shelter system. 

The mayor added that he is concerned about finding a long-term housing solution for the migrants. The town of Methuen has only 17 apartments available, ranging from $1,300 to $2,175, according to the housing rental website Zumper. 

"If the plan is to find them housing in the Methuen community, I have to respectfully push back. Not that I don’t want them to have housing, (but) I have housing needs of my own community today I’m not satisfying," Perry said.