“He shall make us a praise and glory that men shall say of succeeding plantations, “may the Lord make it like that of New England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.“—John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1630.
From its founding to today there is very little about Massachusetts’ story that does not reflect that of the wider American experience, and perhaps that is why, among its many nicknames, Massachusetts is known as “the Spirit of America”. Unfortunately, though, this trend of reflecting the developments of the wider nation holds true even now.
Today Massachusetts faces a number of serious crises from being 24th in the nation for drug overdose deaths to having the 6th lowest fertility rate in the nation, but these crises pale in comparison to the demographic transformation taking place in the Pilgrim State. No other problem can be effectively resolved by the people of Massachusetts if they are replaced by a tide of mass immigration and the subsequent demographic and cultural changes that follow.
The Demographic History
In 1960, just five years before the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act, the foreign-born population of Massachusetts stood at only 465,000 people or about 9% of the state’s population. Furthermore, 98% of this foreign-born population was from Europe or Canada meaning that integration was comparatively easy. This is because the population of Massachusetts itself was overwhelmingly of European descent and Christian in character, just like the immigrants who were arriving to the state at the time. In 1960 Massachusetts was roughly 96% non-Hispanic White and 2.2% African American. The remainder were a small share of Native Americans and Asian Americans. This is no longer the state of affairs in Massachusetts.
After the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act the demographics of the state, just as in the rest of the United States, began a rapid shift. As of the 2020 Census the non-Hispanic White population of Massachusetts has declined to 67.6% of the population while the African American population sits at 8.2%. A substantial Hispanic population, a group that did not even register in state demography until 1970, now constitutes 12.6% of the state’s population while the Asian share of the population has increased from 0.1% in 1960 to a massive 8.2% share today. The foreign-born population has doubled from its 1960 figure to now constitute 18% of the population of Massachusetts, or about 1.26 million people. Furthermore, the character of these immigrants has changed. Where people of European stock once constituted 98% of the immigrant population they now constitute only 26%.
In Boston, the Puritans’ aforementioned Christian city on a hill, the foundational European population has been reduced to a minority. As of 2020 only 44.7% of residents are of European descent while Hispanics, only 0.1% of the Boston area population in 1940, now constitute 20% of the population. The Asian population has also increased from 0.2% to 9.7% in that same time-frame while the Black population has increased from 3.1% to 22%. We can’t say African American population as 40% of the Boston area Black population are of foreign origin—Jamaican or African-African. In total 27.3% of Boston’s population are of foreign birth, a share that is more than double the 13% figure from 1960.
Consequences of Diversification
As a result of the diversification of the state immigrant communities, including illegal immigrants, have become a major constituency for the state government and Democratic party in particular. Not only does the state issue driving licenses and in-state tuition to illegal aliens but immigrants legal and illegal alike are eligible for state-funded benefits like Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC), Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and SNAP (food stamp) benefits. Illegal aliens also qualify for certain coverage under the state’s MassHealth healthcare programs.
Furthermore, this mass immigration has led to a significant cultural shift in the state. In 2023 the now mayor of Boston and second-generation Taiwanese woman Michelle Wu held a holiday party for non-White individuals(”Electeds of Color”) only.
When faced with criticism her response was to call people racist, anti-Asian, and sexist. This is far from the only example. In 2024 the state attorney general, Andrea Campbell, issued an action plan to address “hate and bias” in Massachusetts schools which included a refocusing of education on the slave trade (something blamed almost entirely on Whites) despite Massachusetts being one of the first colonies in the New World to abandon slavery.
Representative Ayanna Pressley is also known for making near-constant anti-White comments such as saying that anti-abortion activities are rooted in “white supremacy” and claiming that White males in the US “fail upwards” in comparison to women like her (a wealthy Black woman in congress). Pressley has referred to Supreme Court rulings, abortion bans, and other policies she dislikes as “White supremacy” as well. One of the state’s Senators, the self-proclaimed Native American Elizabeth Warren, has doubled down numerous times on labeling Trump (and therefore the broader movement of American conservatives) as White supremacist.
It would appear that trafficking in rank anti-White rhetoric and labeling everything one dislikes in the state and nation as “White Supremacy” is an electorally successful strategy in Massachusetts.
Despite this hostile political environment and a general leftward tilt in state politics, many people in Massachusetts are not thrilled with mass immigration into their state. A 2024 poll found that 67% of the population, including 72% of Whites, viewed immigration as a “major problem or crisis” for the state while a further 47% of the population was against providing emergency shelter to migrants (45% supported).
A more recent poll from February of 2025 showed that 43% of the population of the state supported cooperating with the Trump administration on the deportation of illegal aliens while 41% of people opposed such cooperation. A similar gap exists over using the national guard to enforce immigration law, with 40% of residents supporting such an action and 45% opposed with 15% undecided.
Reversing Demographic Decline
Luckily for the people of Massachusetts their demographic decline could be modestly reversed through a mix of state-level policy and concerted cooperation with federal authorities. The first step is to deal with illegal immigrants in the state, of which there are an estimated 400,000 (plus their children). By removing all welfare benefits for illegal aliens, passing mandatory E-Verify laws, and enforcing extant state laws (MGL C149 Section 19C) that fine employers for employing illegals the state can rapidly entice this population to self-deport to other more illegal friendly locales. These policies should also be combined with widespread and mandatory state and local law enforcement cooperation with ICE and other federal authorities to speed up the detention and deportation of illegal aliens.
The next step is to deal with the very large legal immigrant population in the state, many of whom will have committed fraud to enter the country, gain legal status, and in many cases citizenship. 70% of immigrants in the United States are admitted on the basis of family ties, not for work or school. This means that a large portion of people who have acquired US citizenship are likely to have done so fraudulently. The proof for this is best demonstrated by a 2008 incident wherein the US State Department discovered, through DNA testing, that over 80% of individuals admitted into the US as a family member of a “refugee” were not related to that individual. The US government has since mandated DNA testing for refugees who request their family members come to the US, but this DNA testing mandate has not been put in place for any other category of family reunification.
Further proof can be found in the recently executed Operation Twin Shield which visited more than 1,000 legal migrants in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area and found that a staggering 44% had committed some form of fraud, crime, or posed a national security threat to the American people.
Were Massachusetts to provide support and resources to the federal government to conduct a similar, much large, operation in the state (including reviewing naturalizations), then it is entirely within the realm of possibility that of the 900,000 legal immigrants in the state some 400,000 have committed a similar fraud, crime, or pose a national security threat. A further 132,000 children of immigrants can be added to this count, as they would need to depart the state and nation with their now visa-deprived or denaturalized parents.
Were these policies to be implemented comprehensively then Massachusetts could see a decline in its foreign-born population from 18.1% today to roughly 10.2% post-remigration. The overall state population would decline from 7.14 million to 6.2 million and the White American share of the population would increase to 77.6%, a 10-point increase on the current situation.
Building further on this success would require voluntary paid remigration programs, which White Papers is a strong advocate of. Until such a time, though, there is a lot that can be done to mitigate the decades of mass immigration visited upon the American people.