Child rape and violent incidents reported at Massachusetts migrant shelters, former facility director says
A former director at a Massachusetts migrant shelter is speaking out against what he says were incidents of widespread violence, child sexual assault and rape at shelters in the state, including an incident where a father impregnated his 14-year-old daughter.
Massachusetts, a sanctuary state, has been one of a number of states that have been overwhelmed by the migrant surge coming from the southern border.
The state has spent nearly $1.1 billion of taxpayers’ money this fiscal year to house and feed the border crossers who have often been placed in hotels converted into shelters.
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Meshach Little of Northill Wilkston Security Firm walks the perimeter of the main living area at the state’s new emergency overflow shelter for migrants at the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex. (Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
One such migrant shelter in Marlborough, Massachusetts, was managed by Jon Fetherston from November 2023 to July 2024, who painted a chaotic picture of his time there with violence, wasteful spending and rape.
“There was a lot of violence,” Fetherston told The Daily Wire of the crowded 550-person shelter at Holiday Inn at 265 Lakeside Ave. “Unfortunately there was a gentleman in the hotel that impregnated his own daughter and got very violent when the state removed her from the shelter.”
A Maine Wire report from June appears to corroborate the claim, reporting that illegal immigrant Ronald Joseph allegedly raped his 14-year-old daughter numerous times on the journey to the U.S. — both before and after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Dept. of Children and Families (DcF) interviewed the young girl before making the decision to remove her from her father’s custody on an emergency basis,” the document obtained by The Maine Wire states.
Illegal migrants line the floors of a terminal at Boston Logan Airport as Massachusetts’ shelters are overrun. (WBZ)
Joseph was then given a taxpayer-funded Lyft ride to another shelter in Worcester, Massachusetts, after he started yelling and making threatening gestures at the shelter staff, The Maine Wire reports, citing Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) records.
“They had me send them to Worcester County,” Fetherston told the Daily Wire. “And I, for the life of me, don’t understand why he wasn’t locked up. A man who admits he committed rape, you’re just going to put in another shelter so he can rape again another day? It makes no sense.”
That shelter is also paid for by taxpayers and residents receive the full slate of benefits while staying there, according to The Maine Wire, which reports that the official report did not recommend that any criminal charges should be brought against Joseph.
In another disturbing incident, Fetherston says that a 16-year-old female student says she was raped multiple times by a 29-year-old man.
“She told the police officer that she was raped multiple times. It was probably the most disturbing conversation I’ve ever heard in my adult life,” Fetherston told the Daily Wire.
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Cory Bernard Alvarez is accused of aggravated rape of a 15-year-old child in a Rockland migrant shelter. (ICE)
The man, identified as Gladimy Rodene by The Maine Wire, was arrested, removed from the shelter and was reportedly issued an abuse prevention order, which forbade him from approaching the Marlborough Holiday Inn or the local High School where his victim is a student.
Rodene reportedly sexually assaulted another girl, according to the Daily Wire, citing a report from a security guard recounting a statement from the original victim.
A spokesperson for ICE told The Daily Wire that they do not have a detainer on either of the individuals.
In another violent incident at a Massachusetts shelter, a pregnant woman was allegedly raped and assaulted at a different hotel shelter in July by 34-year-old Haitian national Marc Kervens Beauvais, per the Boston Globe.
In August, ICE says it arrested 26-year-old Haitian national Cory Bernard Alvarez, accused of aggravated rape of a 15-year-old child in a Rockland migrant shelter.
Fetherston also spoke about migrants fighting over microwave access and in one incident, a migrant drove a car into Fetherston’s office, knocking him off his chair, in what he claims was retaliation for refusing to hand out diapers to migrants on government benefits.
“If you were receiving benefits and you were receiving those, then we were going to start scaling back on providing diapers, formula and wipes,” Fetherston said. “That did not go over well with the migrants. They thought that they were being attacked. A gentleman then drove his car into my office.”
Fetherston told the Daily Wire that his daily tasks included assisting migrants with enrolling in social services like food stamps and government health insurance. The migrants were given three meals a day from catering companies, and he purchased essential items such as toiletries, diapers, strollers and baby wipes for them.
He also coordinated state-paid, same-day dry cleaning for the migrants and arranged Uber rides to work when needed. He added he was given an Amazon budget and other accounts to buy necessities for the migrants with no spending cap.
“They maybe have two days’ worth of clothing on them and they have no toiletries, they don’t have any IDs, they don’t have anything,” Fetherston told The Daily Wire. “The state contract was that you provide everything that they would need. So a lot of the days you spent ordering.”
The news comes as Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has said that her state police will “absolutely not” be cooperating with the expected mass deportation effort by the incoming Trump administration, warning that she will use “every tool in the toolbox” to “protect” residents in the blue state.
President-elect Trump has pledged to launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history” to deport millions of illegal immigrants. One report by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) estimated 50,000 migrants have arrived in the state since 2021.
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Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has said that her state police will “absolutely not” be cooperating with the expected mass deportation effort by the incoming Trump administration, warning that she will use “every tool in the toolbox” to “protect” residents in the blue state. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
“I do think it is important that we all recognize that there is going to be a lot of pressure on states and state officials. I can assure you we’re going to work hard to deliver,” Healey said following President-elect Trump’s resounding election win last month.
Last year, Healey declared a state of emergency in the state due to the surge and called for federal action. She also acknowledged that the state’s policies may be a draw for migrants.
“Many of these families are migrants to Massachusetts, drawn here because we are and proudly have been a beacon to those in need,” she wrote in a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Fox News’ Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
