Every year, veterans flock to the Army-Navy game to watch the storied football match between the two military academies.
But before this year’s game in Massachusetts, many veterans say their hotel reservations were canceled and the rooms given to illegal immigrants, a travel agent told local media.
Mark Mansbach, a travel agent from New Jersey, reached out to three hotels owned by Giri Hotel Management, and he recounted the hotel managers’ shocking response.
“They were leasing out the hotels to the state of Massachusetts for refugees,” Manbach told CBS News.
The travel agent also told WBZ-TV, “I have never had a hotel take rooms back and give me nothing. They sent out cancellations and walked away… Some people (clients) have decided not to go, and others found space in Boston. Some I have been able to put into other hotels that I had space left in.”
In a statement to the outlet, the hotel managers acknowledged its decision to house migrants but failed to address the reported decision to cancel the veterans’ reservations.
Gov. Maura Healy, D-Mass., has denied any responsibility for the reported cancellations of veterans’ plans.
“I am very distressed to learn that any veteran may have been moved from a hotel, who had booked a hotel for that game,” Healey said Wednesday, according to local media. “As I understand it, those were decisions made by area hotels.”
Massachusetts has a right-to-shelter law. In other words, Massachusetts guarantees emergency housing to “any person in the Commonwealth, even if they didn’t intend on staying permanently.” However, the state may deny this housing to “a person who comes here solely for these benefits.”
According to data reviewed by CBS News, the state was housing 650 illegal immigrant families in hotels in 2009, and it’s now housing 3,000 families.
State Rep. Peter Durant, a Republican, called for chipping away at the right-to-shelter law. “I think that we need to kind of just clean this up, we need to make sure that it’s specifically for those who need this help that are residents and citizens of Massachusetts,” Durant said. “They need a place, we certainly don’t want them out on the street but this law was never intended to just be a magnet for anybody that happens to come into the state.”
Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin — a nonpartisan official who touts his “progressive approach” — has called for similar tweaks.
“Do I think the law should be changed? I do,” Galvin told CBS News.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president, has pounced.
“Our veterans and service academy graduates cannot find anywhere to stay for the Army-Navy Game because hotels are housing illegal aliens on the taxpayers’ dime,” DeSantis tweeted Wednesday. “What a farce.”
The Healy administration’s Office of Veteran Services told WBZ Wednesday that it was trying to find rooms for these veterans. The game will take place on Dec. 9 at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts.
The Horn editorial team