Gov. Maura Healey’s office largely declined to release top staffers’ emails associated with a state of emergency declaration earlier this month, keeping secret the conversations they had in the runup to the major decision.
Healey declared a state of emergency on Aug. 8 in response to emergency shelters filling up with constantly arriving migrants from other countries and as surging housing costs hurt residents already in Massachusetts.
Housing and migrant advocacy groups applauded the move as a way to free up resources and easily clear bureaucratic hurdles to respond to what they have described as a humanitarian crisis.
But the online discussions decision-makers in state government had in the months prior have been withheld from public view. The governor is not subject to the public records law in Massachusetts but has, in some cases, released records to the public and media.
The Herald requested emails sent or received between May 1 and Aug. 8 by Healey, Chief of Staff Kate Cooke, Senior Advisor Gabrielle Viator, Federal Affairs Director Will Rasky, and Communications Director Jillian Fennimore that contained the phrases or words state of emergency, emergency declaration, National Guard, shelter, emergency shelter, or Mayorkas, a reference to to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
In a denial letter sent Wednesday, a records access officer cited the state’s public records law exemption for attorney-client privilege, the “unique obligations of the office of the governor,” and a Supreme Judicial Court ruling that has allowed Massachusetts’ top executive to largely shield themselves from records requests.
“Gov. Healey’s office will evaluate public records requests based on the public records law, established exemptions, and any unique obligations of the Office of the Governor,” Records Access Officer Jesse Boodoo wrote.
A Healey spokesperson declined to comment further.
Healey’s office did provide four emails, including one sent May 11 by White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Associate Director Evan Wessel to Rasky and Sam Hyun, director of federal relations for the City of Boston.
A May 10 entry on Healey’s daily calendar shows a virtual meeting was scheduled between the White House, governors, and Mayorkas.
Wessel sent Rasky and Hyun a memo that provided an overview of the Biden administration’s actions in advance of lifting Title 42, a federal policy that was used during the COVID-19 pandemic to restrict asylum in an effort to protect public health.
“Multiple federal agencies are working to manage the border using the tools available. But Congress must take action to update our broken immigration system,” Wessel said in the email.
Rasky sent an Aug. 8 email to Department of Homeland Security Intergovernmental Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary Miriam Enriquez and Associate Director Colleen Silva that contained a copy of a letter Healey wrote to Mayorkas.
In the letter, Healey called for federal funds to deal with emergency shelter difficulties in Massachusetts and for federal officials to expedite work authorizations for newly-arrived migrants.
“See attached,” Rasky wrote to Enriquez and Silva. “Miriam, I gave you a buzz a few minutes ago, and of course glad to discuss this further.”
Another email provided to the Herald was a May 13 weekly bulletin from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that included information on the agency’s Southwest Border Coordination Center.
The fourth email contains English and Spanish versions of a press release Healey’s office distributed after she declared the state of emergency.
Speaking to reporters on Aug. 8, Healey said she directed local officials to utilize “all means necessary” to secure housing, shelter, and health and human services to address the heavy uptick in new arrivals fleeing difficult or dangerous conditions in their home countries.
“It’s more families than our state has ever served, exponentially more than our state has ever served in our emergency assistance program,” Healey said. “These numbers are being driven by a surge of new arrivals in our country who have been through some of the hardest journeys imaginable.”