Maura Healey hands it to Trump, praises migrant crackdown
by Andrew Quemere
Legendary poster dril has a handful of tweets that people can’t stop referencing. Here’s one of them:
Keep it in mind while you read these comments about immigration policy from Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, which were reported by the State House News Service:
"I told President [Joe] Biden that he needed to act on the border and shut it down two years ago, three years ago now. I think that some of what Donald Trump has done on the border makes a lot of sense, right? And the tightening there," Healey told reporters following an unrelated event [on May 20].
"I won't get into specifics. But the general move and recognition that there needed to be more control brought to the border is absolutely correct. And certain things have been done that make a lot of sense," Healey continued.
Healey’s words raise a lot of questions. What exactly did she mean when she told former President Biden “to act on the border and shut it down”? Was she suggesting that the US should prohibit all migration into the country? Because it’s not clear what else that would mean, and it’s the sort of idea one associates with far-right racist cranks, not Democratic governors of solidly blue states.
And which of Trump’s border policies does the governor believe “make a lot of sense”? She said she wouldn’t “get into specifics,” but inquiring minds want to know! I asked Healey’s spokesperson to clarify her comments, but I did not receive a response.
I posted Healey’s remarks on Bluesky, and many people shared their thoughts. Most were just plain angry at the governor. But one person wrote, “The cardinal sin of democrats is feeling like they have to complement the despot before they criticize him.” Others said that Healey had made a “right turn” or was pivoting in preparation for a possible future presidential bid. Ironically, I saw even more of this sentiment on X the Everything App, where members of the frothing-at-the-mouth-racist Blue Checkmark brigade were convinced that Healey was being insincere and only praising Trump to play politics.
But that’s not what’s going on here. A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found that less than half of Americans approve of Trump’s immigration policies. The survey found that only about four out of 10 independents and about two out of 10 Democrats support the policies. These are the people that Healey, a Democrat, should be appealing to if she wants to win another election.
If we’re thinking purely in terms of the horse race, it does not make strategic sense to concede an issue to your opponent if their policies are wildly unpopular with your base and relatively unpopular with independents. You do not, under any circumstances, gotta hand it to Trump for his immigration crackdown. And yet here we find ourselves.
To understand why Healey is praising Trump, you need to understand that she is not a liberal or progressive—she is a cop. Before being elected governor, she was the state’s attorney general, which makes her a prosecutor, which makes her a cop. As attorney general, Healey constantly defended harmful and regressive policies like cannabis criminalization. She advocated for loosening our state wiretapping law to give police expansive surveillance powers. And she pushed the state legislature to not prohibit police from conducting violent “no-knock” raids at homes with elderly people and children. Her ideology is cop.
It’s this cop worldview that explains what’s really going on: Healey is praising Trump’s border policies because she genuinely agrees with him. Healey views migrants as a burden that must be managed with the violence of the state, not as potential community members who will uplift us if we uplift them. Healey isn’t under pressure from her constituents to say she wished Biden shut down the border or that Trump actually has some pretty good points about keeping migrants out of the country if you think about it. This is not a trick. This is what Healey really believes.
If you want a leader who will fight for the causes you support, you need someone who shares your values. When someone shares your values, they won’t agree with you on everything—no one will—but they are persuadable. They might change their approach if you and enough like-minded others demand it. But if someone doesn’t share your values, they don’t care what you think and you’ll have a much harder time influencing them.
If you are someone who believes migrants deserve to be treated with dignity and welcomed into our communities, Healey does not share your values. She is trying to tell you that, and you should take her seriously.
P.S.: Every Memorial Day, I share this documentary about Denis Reynoso.
He survived the Iraq War only to be killed by cops back home in Lynn, Massachusetts while experiencing a mental-health crisis. Former Governor Deval Patrick literally gave medals to the cops for killing him.
Please watch it here:
Andrew Quemere is an investigative journalist from Massachusetts and the author of The Mass Dump newsletter. He writes about wrongful convictions, police misconduct, and government transparency.
Check out this great piece of reporting by Quemere for the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and The Appeal.
ANDREW QUEMERE
More from him in Hell World:
Luke O’Neil
Luke O’Neil
Luke O’Neil