It’s all fun and games in a sanctuary state until illegal aliens show up and expect all the freebies they think they are entitled to receive. In Massachusetts, for example, Governor Maura Healey wants a “Right to Shelter” law reformed.

Healey, a Democrat, is panicking about the arrival of illegal aliens in the state. She declared a state of emergency on August 8, asking for help from the federal government. On August 31, she called up 250 Massachusetts National Guard members to help with more than 6,000 illegal migrant families in the state’s shelter system.

In Woburn, about 10 miles northwest of Boston, illegal aliens are being welcomed by locals but those people are quickly becoming concerned about the reality of providing services for them. Other cities and communities around Massachusetts are experiencing the same reality check.

Massachusetts is the only state with a right-to-shelter law. The law guarantees families with children shelter if they meet the criteria. More than 80 cities and towns are receiving illegal aliens. New York City’s law is similar. The number of families are living in emergency shelters and hotels across the state has doubled in the past year. The number was 6,300 last week. Costs are rising to an estimated $45M per month. Most of the new arrivals are from Haiti. They come through word of mouth and because of the state’s Haitian community.

In Massachusetts, there are about 2,500 families living in hotels. They are also housed on two college campuses and on a Cape Cod military base. Two welcome centers have been opened to process them as they arrive. Many come from the southern border – surprise! In Quincy, south of Boston, many of the nurses and caseworkers are Haitian Americans who speak Haitian Creole. Welcome, welcome, law-breakers. About 10 new families show up at the center every day. Excuse me if I seem a little lacking in sympathy. This is such a miniscule number to acknowledge that expecting sympathy for the burden seems ridiculous, given the numbers arriving across the Texas and Arizona borders every day.

With the number of migrant families in Woburn hotels rising to 150, Mayor Scott Galvin, a Democrat seeking an 8th term in office, notes that the situation is unsustainable. He wants the state legislators to consider changing the 40-year-old right-to-shelter law. It was “passed at a different time, and was not meant to cover what we’re seeing now.”

“We’re going above and beyond, while some communities around us are not being impacted, and we don’t have endless capacity in our schools,” he said in an interview. “The benefits that are bestowed on migrants make the state a very attractive destination, and without some changes, this challenge is not going to abate.”

Yes. If a state welcomes illegal aliens with open arms and sweetens the invitation with free services and perks, then don’t be surprised when they come. This isn’t rocket science. The southern border was opened up and Joe Biden told them to come. He said there would be no more deportations for those already illegally living in the United States. He said those who crossed into the country and claimed asylum would be allowed to stay here. They took him up on his offer. They still are. Hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants are apprehended every month from all around the world. It only became an issue for most states when the migrant buses began showing up in sanctuary cities. There was not a peep from any of them when DHS began flying and bussing them around the country.

The New York Times article that gushes over the volunteers who openly welcome the illegal aliens into their communities has a strange way of describing the welcome that they got on Cape Cod when DeSantis sent two planes with migrants to the area.

The state, one of the most affluent and politically progressive in the nation, was among the first to be targeted by Republican governors seeking to force Democratic leaders far from the border to confront the immigration crisis. After Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida shipped two planes full of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Cape Cod, last fall, residents of the island rallied to their aid.

Maine, too, has developed a reputation for helping migrants, fueling a stream of new arrivals, many from Africa, that has overwhelmed the state’s scarce housing stock. In Portland, Maine’s largest city, 200 asylum seekers lived in a sports arena, the Portland Expo, for months this year before they were recently moved into hotels.

Residents of Martha’s Vineyard “rallied to their aid”, eh? My memory of that is different. They said there was no room to house them, though it is a resort area and it was the off-season so plenty of housing was empty. They gave them bowls of cold cereal and the National Guard was called to bus them away to a military facility in Cape Cod. The residents of Martha’s Vineyard were happy to hug them as they arrived and try to speak Spanish to them but then it was time for them to go – as quickly as possible. The liberal hypocrisy exposed was priceless.

Welcome to the party, Massachusetts. You asked for it.