Massachusetts Gov. Healey orders inspection of state shelters after migrant arrest

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey announced that all state-run shelters will be inspected and their policies reviewed after a migrant was found with 10 pounds of fentanyl and a large-capacity rifle.

Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, 28, was arrested in Revere, Mass. on Dec. 27 with an estimated $1 million worth of fentanyl, an AR-15 loaded with .556 ammunition, and three large capacity rifle magazines, the Revere Police Department announced last week.

Sanchez, a Dominican national who immigrated illegally, had been at a hotel-turned-homeless shelter looking for a room when officers caught him.

“This individual endangered occupants of the hotel, on-site workers, public safety personnel and the community at large,” Chief David Callahan said.

“His arrest underscores our commitment to work tirelessly to protect our community from those dealing deadly Fentanyl and possessing illegal firearms,” said Callahan.

Healey ordered that all the state shelters be investigated in the wake of Sanchez’s arrest at a Quality Inn — and amid fierce backlash from the House Republican Caucus.

“How is it possible an undocumented immigrant here illegally is receiving a benefit of emergency family shelter, even though our laws do not allow it? How is it this individual wasn’t flagged in a so-called comprehensive background check upon application for shelter?” caucus members wrote to Healey.

“How is it despite the strict gun laws of the Commonwealth this individual was allegedly able to acquire a high-capacity firearm? How was a criminal enterprise being run out of a family shelter as he allegedly obtained fentanyl and cocaine that he was allegedly selling from the shelter’s motel room?”

Sanchez was arraigned last week in Chelsea District Court on 10 firearm charges and trafficking in fentanyl, according to Revere police.

US Immigration and Customs’ Enforcement and Removal Operations in Boston has filed an immigration detainer against Sanchez alongside the Revere police, according to a press release from ICE.

Sanchez is currently in state custody, but will be transferred over to ICE when he is released.

Massachusetts has been embroiled in immigration complaints surrounding its state system for years, but issues have spiked in recent months as courts have consistently disregarded ERO Boston’s immigration detainers.

The 2017 Lunn ruling by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court determined that the existing law “provides no authority for Massachusetts court officers to arrest and hold an individual solely on the basis of a Federal civil immigration detainer.” 

The Trial Court’s policy also guarantees that people going into ICE custody shouldn’t be handled or treated any differently than anyone else just because they are with a detainer.

A Lunn response bill was filed by Republicans in the House and Senate in October 2024, but it died after no action was taken by the end of the term.

Healey said her administration has been in contact with local law enforcement and federal immigration officials about Sanchez’s case and indicated that “federal inaction” is to blame.

“This further underscores our broken federal immigration system and the urgent need for Congress and the White House to act on a border security bill to prevent criminals from entering our communities,” Healey said.

New York City has seen similar issues even as shelters across the state begin to shutter their doors.

Over the summer, one migrant shelter in Long Island City was all but overrun by a teenage fight club so raucous that residents in the area couldn’t sleep.