Gov. Maura Healey’s administration confirmed it was not conducting full criminal background checks on residents in emergency shelters after months of the first-term Democrat telling the public that guests were fully vetted before entering the system.

The state-funded shelter system, which houses both migrants and local residents, has come under increased fire after an illegal immigrant was arrested in December at a Revere hotel with an AR-15 and $1 million worth of fentanyl and a migrant girl was allegedly raped in Rockland last year.

In the wake of the alleged rape at a hotel serving as a shelter in Rockland, Healey said everyone who enters shelters is “vetted.”

“We’re deploying all that we can in terms of vetting individuals,” the governor said.

But in a statement to the Herald, a spokesperson for the state’s housing agency said Healey has only now ordered name-based criminal record checks against the CORI — Criminal Offender Record Information — system.

“Background checks have always been done for EA applicants. The governor has now ordered CORI checks to be done as well,” the spokesman, Noah Bombard, said. “Warrant checks are conducted monthly while they are in EA.”

The Boston Globe first reported the development. Healey was scheduled to address the media on Friday inside her State House office.

The admission of a lack of criminal background checks came after federal prosecutors this week charged Leonardo Andujar Sanchez, 28, of the Dominican Republic, with possession with intent to distribute more than 400 grams of fentanyl and being an alien in possession of a firearm who entered the U.S. unlawfully.

Thousands of pages of state records released to the Herald showed many instances of alleged criminal activity in emergency shelters, including possession of guns and drugs, rape, domestic assault, and brawls. Healey downplayed the proliferation of crime in shelters after those documents became public.

Healey is grappling with security in emergency shelters just as she asked the Legislature to approve $425 million more in funding to pay for the system through the end of fiscal year 2025.

House Speaker Ron Mariano said this week that additional security in shelters may be a prerequisite before more money is handed to the Healey administration.

“I think you need to have something at the door, obviously, because these people are walking in,” he said. “I’m outraged that a guy walked in with an (AR-15). I mean, that’s outrageous. You don’t put that in your pocket.”

Republicans quickly slammed Healey for the lack of criminal background checks in shelters.

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House Minority Leader Brad Jones said the “failure” to conduct criminal background checks is “completely unacceptable and represents a serious betrayal of the public’s trust.”

“The administration’s handling of the situation has been a total disaster, with the failure to carry out the most basic of public safety protocols needlessly placing other people in harm’s way by housing them alongside dangerous criminals,” the North Reading Republican said in a statement. “Whether it’s incompetence, intransigence or negligence, changes must be made. It’s time for heads to roll.”

This is a developing story…