BOSTON — Massachusetts has quietly become the illegal immigration capital of the Northeast, with an astonishing 1 in 18 people now living in the state unlawfully, according to the latest Pew Research Center estimates. In a state already suffocating under a brutal housing shortage, the numbers land like a thunderclap.

Pew’s breakdown shows 400,000 illegal immigrants living in Massachusetts as of 2023, compared to 825,000 in New York. Adjusted for population, the Bay State doesn’t just catch up — it overtakes New York with 33 percent more illegals per capita, a stunning reversal for a state one-third the size.

The speed of the surge is just as jaw-dropping. 125,000 illegal immigrants arrived between 2021 and 2023 — nearly a third of the current total — matching the previous fifteen years of arrivals combined. What crept along for a decade suddenly turned into a tidal wave.

By last year, the hotel-shelter system had blown past capacity. The state scrambled to book rooms, secure meal services, and shuttle families from one temporary site to another. Then came the pivot: early this year, Governor Maura Healey shut down the hotel model and quietly shifted thousands of migrant families into private housing, putting them in direct competition with long-term Massachusetts residents already desperate for limited apartments. The sanctuary-style perks morphed into state-funded rental packages worth up to $30,000 — in one of the tightest housing markets in America.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Healey have doubled down. They’ve fought tooth and nail against Trump’s deportation push, refusing cooperation with federal enforcement and positioning Massachusetts as a safe haven for illegal immigrants. Their stance has become a political identity — even as schools overflow, hospitals strain, and transit and social services groan under the weight of the surge.

Pew’s long-term data shows Massachusetts’ illegal immigrant population has nearly tripled since 2005, redrawing entire neighborhoods and amplifying a housing crisis that was cracking long before the latest arrivals. With 1 in 18 people in the Commonwealth now here illegally — and official 2025 numbers still unavailable — the question isn’t whether the surge will continue. It’s how much strain the state can absorb before something snaps.