Maura Healey finally read the room.

After rolling out the welcome mat for migrants (guaranteed shelter, drivers licenses, work authorizations), the governor said enough to an unsustainable response to the influx of immigrants in Massachusetts.

Gov. Maura Healey announced Tuesday a drastic re-do in triaging the state’s emergency assistance shelter system.

Starting Aug. 1, the state will prioritize families who are homeless because of a no-fault eviction, who have at least one member who is a veteran, or who are homeless “because of sudden or unusual circumstances in Massachusetts beyond their control, such as a flood or fire,” Healey’s office said.

It doesn’t end the state’s “right to shelter law,” but adds muscle to the Healey administration’s effort to “educate”  migrants in Texas that Massachusetts’ shelters are full.

Healey’s new plan should come as a relief to cities and towns bracing for “selection” as sites for yet more overflow shelters. The new rules place a five-day cap on how long people can stay in overflow sites.

While it is many, many days late and about a billion dollars short, Healey’s move is nonetheless good news for an overburdened Bay State.

Though this may give some migrants boarding a Mass.-bound bus in Brownsville a reason to reconsider the Bay State as their destination, it won’t do anything to tighten our southern border. That was Biden’s job, and while Healey has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, a Harris White House is unlikely to shut the door.

Former President Donald Trump could, if re-elected, and that possibility is spurring a new mass migration north.

As we reported, migrants making their way through Mexico en route to the southern United States border say they want to cross by November, in case legal routes are closed off to them if Donald Trump wins the presidential election.

Hundreds of people from around a dozen countries left Mexico’s southern border Sunday, setting out on a 1,800-plus mile journey to one of the border crossings with the U.S.

Some told the Associated Press that they were hard-working people who just wanted to reach a better life in America, but they feared a second Trump term would put a stop to that.

“We are running the risk that permits (to cross the border) might be blocked,” Miguel Salazar, a migrant from El Salvador, told the AP.

They had no such worries under Biden, and clearly don’t expect resistance from Harris.

Those permits would  come from U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s app, CBP One, which allows asylum seekers to make appointments at border crossings.

In June 2024, around 41,800 appointments were made through the app, but more than double that number made the crossing illegally. While many migrants are hard-working people looking for a better life, they are too often joined by criminals crossing into the U.S. with ill intent.

Massachusetts has hit a wall in terms of taking in migrants, and we’re not alone. A July Gallup poll found 55% of U.S. adults want to see immigration to the U.S. decreased. This is the first time since 2005 that a majority of Americans have wanted there to be less immigration.

Trump got the memo. If Harris wants to appeal to more than the progressive base, she should too.

Editorial cartoon by Gary Varvel (Creators Syndicate)