Social policy
Although Baker announced in July 2015 he would veto any bill that gave illegal immigrants in-state tuition and state aid for public colleges and universities, he maintained support for an existing Massachusetts statute that grants in-state tuition and state aid to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. In September 2015, President Barack Obama's administration proposed accepting 10,000 Syrian Civil War refugees into the country, and Baker relayed his initial support for the proposal. In the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks, Baker opposed allowing additional Syrian refugees into the state until he knew more about the federal government's process for vetting them.
In July 2016, Baker signed a bill into law that prevents illegal immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses. After Donald Trump became president in January 2017, Baker opposed the Trump administration's original and revised travel bans, arguing that "focusing on countries' predominant religions will not make the country safer", and wrote an open letter to then U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security John F. Kelly highlighting concerns with the effects of the travel ban on Massachusetts businesses, colleges and universities, and academic medical centers.
In February 2017, Baker issued an executive order to reestablish the state's Black Advisory Commission to advise his administration on issues of concern to the black community in Massachusetts. The next month, he said his administration was cooperating with an FBI investigation of bomb threats made against Jewish Community Centers in the state, calling the threats "horribly destructive and disturbing." In May 2017, Baker declared his opposition to proposed legislation that would make Massachusetts a sanctuary state, citing his belief that sanctuary status decisions are "best made at a local level." However, in July Baker said he was "open-minded" about the prospect of statewide sanctuary status.
In August 2017, after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that local police departments cannot detain any person solely based on requests from federal immigration authorities the previous month, Baker's administration filed legislation that would allow the Massachusetts State Police and local departments to detain individuals previously convicted of a felony or "aliens [illegal immigrants] who pose a threat to public safety," but not to authorize local police to "enforce federal immigration law."
In September 2017, Baker opposed Trump's administrative decision to phase out the DACA program and said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids targeting sanctuary cities should focus on arresting convicted criminals in the country illegally and not on illegal immigrants whose only crime is illegal entry. The same month, he criticized Trump for his comments about the NFL racial inequality protests as "unpresidential and divisive." In November 2017, Baker wrote an open letter to acting U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke urging the Trump administration to continue to allow citizens of El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras to stay in the U.S. under temporary protected status, and the next month, Baker and a bipartisan group of 11 other governors wrote an open letter to the leadership of the 115th U.S. Congress urging it to allow DACA recipients to stay in the U.S. as well.
Despite revisions to sanctuary status legislation proposed the previous year, Baker opposed a revised version of the legislation after it was submitted in the state legislature in February 2018, and the next May, he said he would veto the revised version of the legislation attached in the state legislature as an amendment to the 2019 fiscal year state budget. In June 2018, Baker directed the Massachusetts National Guard not to send any assets or personnel to the U.S.–Mexico border to assist the Trump administration in enforcing its "zero-tolerance policy" towards immigrants, citing the Trump Administration's family separation policy towards children as "cruel and inhumane."
In December 2018, Baker called for the suspension of a state district court judge who allegedly assisted an illegal immigrant in avoiding detention by an ICE agent during a legal proceeding from hearing further criminal cases until the federal investigation of the incident is concluded. In January 2019, he announced he would veto any bill that grants illegal immigrants driver's licenses.
In June 2020, Baker signed a law making Juneteenth an official state holiday.
In December 2020, Baker signed into law An Act Relative to Justice, Equity and Accountability in Law Enforcement in the Commonwealth, a bill created in response to Black Lives Matter protests calling for police reform across the country in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the shooting of Breonna Taylor. He originally hesitated to sign the bill and sent it back to the legislature due to a provision that would create a civilian-led commission on police misconduct (six of its nine members would be civilians), saying, "I do not accept the premise that civilians know best how to train police". He also opposed the bill's ban on facial recognition technology. He signed the bill into law after compromising by limiting facial recognition technology, not banning it altogether.
In February 2015, Baker announced the formation of a working group to write a report formulating a statewide strategy to address the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts, which was released in June 2015. In the same month of the report's release, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health began a public awareness campaign on opioid addiction, and Baker announced a $34.5 million proposal following the working group's recommendations that included a $5.8 million program to move civil commitments for substance abuse from state prisons to state hospitals operated by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, with Baker himself saying, "Opioid addiction is a health care issue that knows no boundaries across age, race, class or demographics."
In November 2015, Baker and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh testified before the state legislature in support of the legislation, and the legislation received the endorsement of several Massachusetts county sheriffs, as well as Boston City Police Commissioner William B. Evans. In the same month, Baker announced a statewide anti-stigma media campaign to combat stereotypes about drug addiction, a core competencies program in prevention and management of prescription drug misuse at the state's medical schools, and signed into law a bill making fentanyl trafficking a crime.
In January 2016, Baker and into law a bill legally prohibiting the civil commitment of women for substance abuse to MCI Framingham and diverting those commitments to treatment centers, such as Taunton State Hospital. In February 2016, Baker announced $2.5 million in federal grants for opioid and heroin crime reduction to Massachusetts criminal justice agencies, as well as a core competencies program on prescription drug misuse at the state's dental schools, and Baker spoke in support of the Obama Administration's $1.1 billion proposal to expand access to treatment for drug addicts.
In March 2016, Baker spoke in support of new Centers for Disease Control opioid prescription guidelines, signed into law a bill repealing automatic driver's license suspensions for people convicted of drug crimes, and signed into law a compromise version of the comprehensive opioid legislation he proposed the previous October. In May 2016, Baker and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey launched a statewide campaign to promote awareness of protection for people calling in drug overdoses under Good Samaritan laws. In June 2016, Baker met with the five other New England governors at a panel in Boston to coordinate reforms to address the opioid epidemic, such as setting limitations on opioid prescriptions, and the following month, Baker organized an interstate compact signed by 44 governors to agree adopting the same strategies for addressing the opioid epidemic modeled after the policies Baker has implemented in Massachusetts.
In August 2016, Baker launched an improved version of the state's prescription monitoring program and expanded the state's core competencies program in prevention and management of prescription drug misuse to advanced practice nursing and physician assistant programs, as well as to training programs for employees at community health centers, and the following month, Baker announced a statewide medication disposal program at Walgreens pharmacies. In December 2016, Baker announced a pilot workers' compensation program to provide alternative treatments to opioids for workers with settled claims for on-the-job injuries.
In February 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released data showing that estimated opioid-related deaths had increased to nearly 2,000 during 2016, after increasing from estimates of under 1,400 in 2014 and to under 1,800 in 2015. In March 2017, Baker was appointed to the Trump Administration's Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and in June 2017, Baker attended the commission's first meeting. In April 2017, Baker announced additional funding aid for criminal justice agencies on opioid and heroin abuse reduction programs in Massachusetts gateway cities and Massachusetts received $12 million in federal funding for its opioid epidemic policies. In August 2017, Baker proposed increasing penalties for illegal drug distribution of substances that lead to death to a maximum of life imprisonment and a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, equivalent to vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and the following month, Baker's administration announced a pilot treatment and diversion program with the Worcester Police Department for low-level substance misuse.
In October 2017, Baker's administration extended the core competencies program on prescription drug misuse at the state's medical and dental schools to the state's nine social work schools, Baker traveled to the National Academy of Medicine in Washington, D.C., to speak at a panel discussion about the opioid epidemic, and Baker spoke in support of the Trump Administration's declaration of the opioid epidemic as a national public health emergency and called on the administration to fully fund the proposals of the Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission that Baker served on. In November 2017, the commission released its final report, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released data showing opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts declined by 10 percent over the first nine months of 2017, and Baker proposed an overhaul to the reforms he signed into law in March 2016.
In January 2018, Baker announced that CVS was adding drug disposal boxes to 42 pharmacies across the state, and Baker also proposed a separate bill to reintroduce a proposal that had been removed from the opioid legislation Baker signed into law in March 2016 to allow hospitals to involuntarily hold addiction patients for 72 hours while attempting to place them in treatment. Also in January 2018, Baker and Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders testified before the state legislature on the overhaul bill he proposed the previous November, and during his testimony, Baker expressed skepticism about the effectiveness of supervised injection sites.
In February 2018, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released data showing that opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts fell by eight percent in 2017, and the following May, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released further data showing the number of opioid overdose deaths in Massachusetts during the first three months of 2018 was 5 percent lower than during the first three months of 2017. In May 2018, Baker's administration announced that it had received a $11.7 million federal grant for opioid addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery programs. The following month, Baker's administration awarded nearly $1 million in first responder naloxone grants to 33 police and fire departments, and Baker spoke in support of a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey on behalf of 670 Massachusetts residents against OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma.
In August 2018, Baker signed into law a second comprehensive opioid bill that expanded access to naloxone and addiction treatment and recovery centers, required all opioid prescribers to convert to secure electronic prescriptions by 2020, and created a commission to study the effectiveness of supervised injection sites, involuntary commitments, and the credentialing of recovery coaches. In the same month, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released a report stating that fentanyl was present in nearly 90 percent of the opioid overdose deaths in the state that year. In September 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that Massachusetts would receive $50 million in federal funding to expand access to substance abuse and mental health services in the state.
The following month, Baker announced a statewide standing order from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to allow pharmacies in the state to start dispensing naloxone without a prescription, and Baker proposed a $5 million pilot program to coordinate efforts at fentanyl trafficking enforcement by local police departments. In November 2018, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health released estimates showing that opioid overdose deaths were 1.3 percent lower during the first nine months of 2018 than during first nine months of 2017, but that opioid-related emergency medical service (EMS) incidents increased by 12 percent.
