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Massachusetts Gov. Healey defends immigration record from opponents: "I'm all for getting the bad guys"

What Maura Healey says to potential challengers in Massachusetts governor race
What Maura Healey says to potential challengers in Massachusetts governor race 11:12

In part two of her interview with WBZ-TV's "Keller at Large," Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey defended her record and what she has done for the state despite criticism from her two Republican challengers for governor.

Maura Healey interview

"Cut taxes, that hadn't been done in 20 years," she said during part two of an interview on WBZ-TV's Sunday edition of "Keller At Large." "We're building more homes that should have been built before. We're building them out now at a scale, because we got lower costs. Fixing transportation, for the first time in not even recent memory, the T is running on time, no slow zones. We're going to continue to make investments. We made sure that Massachusetts is number one in education. We're back atop the ratings, and I'm really pleased about that. There are challenges. Driving down costs particularly around housing and energy. I'm running for re-election because I love Massachusetts, and there is so much more we can do in our state, and that's what I want to do."

Standing in Healey's way – the Republicans, including two announced challengers so far, Mike Kennealy and Brian Shortsleeve, who held important posts in the administration of former Gov. Charlie Baker. And while Healey has mostly avoided direct criticism of Baker since succeeding him, she did say she "inherited challenges."

"I inherited a busted unemployment insurance situation with a $3 billion bill that was laid on our desk due to a mistake made in the prior administration, I was able to negotiate that down, and now we're working with businesses to restructure all that," Healey said. "I did inherit a situation where MBTA trains were literally on fire, and appointed a really terrific General Manager in Phil Eng, who's doing the job day in and day out, big improvements. And you know, I inherited a situation where we were short 220,000 housing units as a state."

Gov. Maura Healey in immigration

We read critical quotes from Kennealy and Shortsleeve back to Healey and asked her to respond.

Shortsleeve said of Healey: "I'm calling on Maura Healey to immediately bring an end to Sanctuary policies and cooperate with federal law enforcement so there's an orderly process for getting criminal illegal immigrants off our streets. Healy's coddling has resulted in countless preventable violent crimes and cost our taxpayers billions."

Healey responded: "It's just funny, because I was a prosecutor and Attorney General, I put away a lot of bad guys, including people who are here unlawfully. Put them away for, you know, running drug cartels and gun cartels and the like. Massachusetts is not a sanctuary city. Just for information to folks. I continue to work with state, local and federal law enforcement when it comes to getting bad guys off the streets. Always done that always will. And in terms of ICE, you know, we have an agreement when people are getting out of jail, prison here in Massachusetts and they are here unlawfully, notice goes to ICE. We have a regular working relationship with ICE. ... We have seen instances where the Trump administration is hurting a lot of people, taking a lot of people who aren't criminals off the streets, ripping them away from neighbors, their kids, work places, people who have been living here, working here, paying taxes for years. That is not something Donald Trump said he was going to do. He said he was going to get the bad guys. I'm all for getting the bad guys, but I think what we're seeing and what I've spoken out against, is the apprehension of people who are not bad guys."

Kennealy on Healey signing a letter from Democratic governors protesting President Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles a few weeks back: "If Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom won't act to stop lawlessness, then the federal government has both the right and responsibility to step in. Massachusetts cannot follow California's lead down a path of lawlessness."

Healey's response: "Not only do we have the safest drinking water in the country, not only are we number one for education and healthcare and innovation, also ranked the best state to have a baby, we also are the safest state, lowest gun deaths, lowest car deaths, third lowest property thefts. So, you know, there's a lot of efforts to scare and fearmonger. I've got to govern. I've got to lead. You know, just as I did as Attorney General when I went after bad guys as governor, I'm focused on the economy. How do we build more houses and drive down costs? How do we bring more energy in to lower people's heating bills? How do we create jobs? ... The job of governor is to focus on moving your state forward, not creating and making up stuff that just isn't true."

You can watch part two of the interview with the governor in its entirety here, and join us every Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. for the weekend edition of "Keller At Large."

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