The 35 Venezuelan migrants who are still being housed by the state at Joint Base Cape Cod are expected to leave this week and the base will wind down its temporary shelter operation by the weekend, the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security said a day after Gov. Charlie Baker declined to say whether the state had an end date for its hospitality.
Fourteen of the 49 migrants who took the state up on its offer to relocate them from Martha's Vineyard -- where they were left on Sept. 14 by an immigrant relocation program run by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis -- to Joint Base Cape Cod have already departed the base, and the rest are expected to "depart JBCC this week as additional transitional housing opportunities are finalized," EOPSS said.
Since the migrants were brought to Joint Base Cape Cod on Sept. 16, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency has coordinated with local, state and non-profit partners to provide the migrants with shelter and food, 24/7 access to legal services, access to health care and crisis counseling services, access to transportation to get into town for necessities, and social opportunities, EOPSS said. Martha's Vineyard Communities Services provided financial assistance to shelter migrants, the state said.
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On Monday, when asked by reporters about the situation at Joint Base Cape Cod, Baker said that he did not know just how many of the migrants remained and did not answer directly when asked if the state had selected a date by which its assistance on Cape Cod would come to an end."
Joint Base Cape Cod is not really part of what I would describe as a neighborhood or a community. It's what it is, it's a military base. And I think for most of these folks, if they get their paperwork squared away, the big thing that they and we would like to see them do is figure out some way to turn that into work, because that's the reason most of them say they came in the first place," the governor said Monday.
