“As the Commonwealth stands by its values and continues to welcome new arrivals, the state needs more federal funding to respond to a national trend of increased immigration.”

Text of Letter (PDF)

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) joined Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA), along with the entire Massachusetts congressional delegation, on a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell, urging them to approve Massachusetts’ application for an additional $34.5 million in funding through the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) to better support new arrivals.

At the moment, Massachusetts — the only state in the nation with a “right-to-shelter” law — has almost 7,500 families in its shelter system, with many living in the state’s overflow sites and others on waiting lists for shelter. 

“SSP funding is urgently needed in Massachusetts,” wrote the lawmakers. “With shelter facilities at capacity, families have been forced to sleep outdoors and in cars, in a state with below-freezing temperatures for months of the year. Some have turned to airport lobbies and hospital emergency rooms for makeshift shelter. The Commonwealth is now running out of shelter funding and faces a shortfall in its shelter budget for the upcoming fiscal year.”

SSP covers shelter, food, and other essential services for newly arriving migrants and has served as a critical source of funding for shelters nationwide. Last year, Massachusetts only received $1.9 million of the $800 million in SSP funds allocated in FY2023. This funding year, only $650 million has been appropriated for SSP — less than half of the $1.4 billion requested by the Biden administration. Massachusetts alone anticipates spending $900 million on its Emergency Shelter System in FY2025.

“(We) urge FEMA to fulfill the Commonwealth’s entire request for $34.5 million from the pool of competitive SSP grant funds. Additional SSP funding is critical to ensure that Massachusetts receives an equitable share of funding that reflects the financial costs the Commonwealth is incurring,” continued the lawmakers. “Meanwhile, we will continue to fight for additional federal funding for communities hosting new arrivals.” 

“As the Commonwealth stands by its values and continues to welcome new arrivals, the state needs more federal funding to respond to a national trend of increased immigration. We thus ask you to promptly approve Massachusetts’ application,” concluded the lawmakers.

Full text of the letter is available here.

Rep. Pressley has been an outspoken advocate for federal resources to support Massachusetts and other localities provide shelter, food, and supportive services to those experiencing homeless, including new arrivals. In December 2022, after months of advocacy, Rep. Pressley applauded $800 million in federal funding for a new shelter and services grant program to help localities & NGOs provide shelter and respite to recently arrived migrants. Rep. Pressley has urged the Biden Administration to expedite visa processing for Haitians, streamline work authorizations for new arrivals, and ensure FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program is awarding funds as quickly as possible to Massachusetts entities providing humanitarian aid to migrants arriving in Boston and Martha’s Vineyard.

As Representative for the Massachusetts 7^th Congressional District, Congresswoman Pressley serves as Co-Chair for the House Haiti Caucus and represents one of the largest Haitian diaspora communities in the country, with approximately 46,000 Haitians and Haitian-Americans living across the state and over half in the Boston metropolitan area. Additionally, Massachusetts is home to more than 4,700 Haitians with Temporary Protected Status.

• On June 4, 2024, Rep. Pressley joined her colleagues and a coalition of the nation’s leading immigrant rights advocates to denounce the Biden Administration’s new executive action that would drastically limit asylum by unfairly reducing the number of people who can legally seek asylum in our country.
• On May 8, 2024, Rep. Pressley and her colleagues on the House Haiti Caucus held a press conference at which they renewed their calls for urgent federal action to address the growing crisis in Haiti.
• On April 23, 2024, Rep. Pressley, alongside Co-Chairs Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20), led a group of 50 lawmakers urging the Biden Administration to redesignate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), pause on deportations back to Haiti, extend humanitarian parole to any Haitians currently detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention centers, end detention of Haitian migrants intercepted at sea, and provide additional humanitarian assistance for Haiti.
• On April 18, 2024, Rep. Pressley and Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs led a letter to House Ways and Means Committee leadership emphasizing support for the early renewal of the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement (HOPE) and the Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Acts, commonly known as HOPE/HELP. 
• On April 12, 2024, Rep. Pressley joined Haitian-led activists, organizations, and a directly impacted person in Haiti for a press call urging federal action to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in Haiti.
• On March 27, 2024, Rep. Pressley joined Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and her colleagues on the Massachusetts congressional delegation in urging the Biden Administration to expedite visa processing for Haitians, particularly  for relatives of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.
• On March 12, 2024, Rep. Pressley and Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Cherfilus McCormick and Yvette Clarke issued a statement on the resignation of Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry.
• On March 6, 2024, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the recent jailbreak and State of Emergency in Haiti.
• On December 8, 2023, Rep. Pressley and Congresswoman Yvette Clarke urged the U.S. Department of State to withdraw U.S. support for an armed foreign intervention in Haiti and encourage negotiations for a Haitian-led democratic political transition.
• On December 6, 2022, Rep. Pressley issued a statement applauding the Biden Administration’s extension and re-designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti.
• On December 1, 2022, Rep. Pressley, Rep. Cori Bush, and Rep. Mondaire Jones led 14 of their colleagues on a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas urging the Department to extend and redesignate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
• In September 2022, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Velázquez led 54 of their colleagues on a letter calling on the Biden Administration to immediately halt deportations to Haiti and provide humanitarian parole protections for those seeking asylum. The lawmakers’ letter followed the Administration’s resumption of deportation flights to Haiti as thousands of Haitian migrants continue to await an opportunity to make an asylum claim at the border. 
• In September 2022, Rep. Pressley joined her colleagues on the House Oversight Committee in demanding answers regarding the inhumane treatment of migrants in Del Rio, Texas, by Border Patrol agents on horseback and pushing to Biden Administration to end the ongoing use and weaponization of Title 42.
• On August 17, 2022, Rep. Pressley, along with Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Val Demings, Yvette Clarke, and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20), called on President Biden to appoint a new Special Envoy to Haiti, a position that has remained unfilled since September 2021.
• On July 7, 2022, Rep. Pressley and Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Andy Levin (MI-09), Val Demings (FL-10) and Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) released a statement marking the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.
• On May 31, 2022, Rep. Pressley and Reverend Dieufort Fleurissaint, chair of Haitian Americans United, published an op-ed in the Bay State Banner in which they called on the Biden administration to withdraw support for de facto ruler of Haiti, Ariel Henry, and instead support an inclusive, civil society-led process to restore stability and democracy on the island. 
• In April 2022, she joined her colleagues at a press conference reaffirming her support for President Biden’s decision to end Title 42. Full video of her remarks at the press conference is available here. Rep. Pressley applauded the Biden Administration’s end of Title 42 in a statement in April 2022.
• On May 26, 2022, Rep. Pressley, along with Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Andy Levin (MI-09), Jim McGovern (MA-02), and Frederica Wilson (FL-24), led a letter to United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Power urging her to act to ensure food security in Haiti.
• On March 16, 2022, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Mondaire Jones called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky to fully end Title 42, cease deportations of people to Haiti and affirm their legal and fundamental human right to seek asylum.
• On February 16, 2022, Rep. Pressley joined Congresswoman Cori Bush (MO-01), Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), and 100 House and Senate colleagues in urging President Biden to reverse inhumane immigration policies – such as Title 42, originally introduced under the Trump Administration – that continue to disproportionately harm Black migrants.
• On February 14, 2022, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), alongside Representatives Judy Chu (CA-27) and Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), led 33 other House Democrats on a letter to Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, demanding answers about the agency’s justification for treating asylum seekers as a unique public health threat, how these expulsions are being coordinated, how asylum seekers being returned to dangerous situations are being cared for, and more.
• On February 14, 2022, Reps. Pressley, Judy Chu (CA-27), and Nydia Velázquez (NY-07) led 33 other House Democrats on a letter to CDC Director Walensky demanding answers about the agency’s justification for treating asylum seekers as a unique public health threat, how these expulsions are being coordinated, how asylum seekers being returned to dangerous situations are being cared for, and more. Days later, Rep. Pressley once again called on the Biden Administration to reverse the Title 42 Order and other anti-Black immigration policies.
• On January 12, 2022, Rep. Pressley and Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09), Andy Levin (MI-09), and Val Demings (FL-10) released a statement on the 12-year anniversary of the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010.
• On November 21, 2021, Rep. Pressley and Senator Elizabeth Warren led the Massachusetts congressional delegation on a letter to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) calling on them to coordinate with the government agencies of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to assist newly arrived families from Haiti. 
• On October 18, 2021, Rep. Pressley, and Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Val Demings (FL-10), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), and Andy Levin (MI-09) issued a statement following the kidnapping of American and Canadian missionaries in Haiti.
• On October 18, 2021, Rep. Pressley issued a statement on the civil rights complaint filed by Haitian families demanding a federal investigation into the heinous actions perpetrated by federal officials at the border.
• On October 22, 2021, Rep. Pressley, along with Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Reps. Rashida Tlaib (MI-13), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), sent a letter to Troy A. Miller, the Acting Administrator of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), demanding a briefing and answers regarding press reports of the inhumane treatment of migrants in Del Rio, Texas, by Border Patrol agents on horseback. 
• On September 17, 2021, Rep. Pressley and Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez (NY-07) led 52 of their colleagues calling on the Biden Administration to immediately halt deportations to Haiti and take urgent action to address the concerns of the Haitian Diaspora after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti.
• On August 14, 2021, Rep. Pressley Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Andy Levin (MI-09) and Val Demings (FL-10) and Mondaire Jones (NY-17) released a statement regarding the recent earthquake in Haiti.
• On July 14, 2021, Rep. Pressley and Haiti Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Andy Levin (MI-09) and Val Demings (FL-10) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calling on him to take a series of steps to support the Haitian diaspora amid ongoing political turmoil in Haiti.
• In July 2021, the Reps. Pressley, Clarke, Demings and Levin issued a statement condemning the assassination of President Moïse and calling for swift and decisive action to bring political stability and peace to Haiti and the Haitian people.
• In May 2021, on Haitian Flag Day, Reps. Pressley, Levin, Clarke and Demings announced the formation of the House Haiti Caucus, a Congressional caucus dedicated to pursuing a just foreign policy that puts the needs and aspirations of the Haitian people first.

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