New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte has a point.
Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, especially when it comes to criminal illegal immigration.
Or, as Republican Ayotte put it to Massachusetts Democrat Gov. Maura Healey — “Get your own house in order, Maura.”
The flap was over Healey’s “demand” that Ayotte reject a proposed Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) regional Granite State site to house detained illegal immigrants, criminal and otherwise.
The empty warehouse facility in Merrimack near the Massachusetts border would be converted into a 400-bed detention facility – one of several large-scale facilities the agency is planning to erect across the country.
“This is outrageous and absolutely the wrong move for New Hampshire,” Healey said. Healey, born in Maryland, grew up in Hampton Falls, N.H.
Ayotte in effect told Healey to mind her own business, which is to run Massachusetts, not New Hampshire.
Besides, many of the criminal illegal immigrants to be temporarily housed at the New Hampshire facility will likely be from Massachusetts, having been waved into the country by Joe Biden and into the state by Healey.
And while Massachusetts is not an official sanctuary state —although Boston is — under Healey, Massachusetts acts like one.
And the state’s generous benefits — originally designed for Massachusetts residents — have made the state a haven for illegal immigrants who flocked to the state seeking these freebies which, of course, cost Massachusetts taxpayers billions.
So It is no wonder that Healey is opposed to cutting the state income tax from from 5% to 4%, which will be on the 2026 ballot for voter consideration.
She needs the money to pay for those benefits.
Massachusetts has been a good deal for illegal immigrants. It is also why they have not descended on New Hampshire which, to say the least, is not as generous to illegal immigrants as is Massachusetts. New Hampshire has no sanctuary cities.
And, unlike Massachusetts, New Hampshire supports local police officials cooperating with ICE.
Illegal immigrants in Massachusetts are protected from ICE. If left-wing judges are not letting them evade ICE from the back door of courthouses, Healey is seeking to outright ban ICE from the courthouses.
She says ICE is made up of “rogue” agents who are breaking the law and causing “devastation” and “harm.” She has joined the chorus of Democrats calling for its defunding.
If Healey were so concerned about law enforcement officials breaking the law, she would also call for the defunding of the Massachusetts State Police. More state cops have been sent to prison under her watch than ICE agents.
All the while Healey has “demanded” that fellow Gov. Ayotte “do everything in her power to block a new ICE facility in New Hampshire.”
Of the demand, Ayotte told the Globe, “New England is in this position because Governor Healey and Massachusetts created a billion-dollar illegal immigrant crisis in our region.”
There is no love lost between the two governors.
Healey went to extraordinary efforts to defeat Ayotte in the last gubernatorial election. She raised money and actively campaigned in New Hampshire for Ayotte’s progressive Democrat opponent Joyce Craig, the former mayor of Manchester, who lost.
Ayotte’s campaign slogan was: “Don’t MASS up New Hampshire.”
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas can be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com.
