One of the least well known of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights is Right number 3:
No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
Modern and even not-so-modern times have largely obviated that guarantee, and few Americans ever think of it. Yet, quartering troops in private homes in colonial days presented a significant burden and danger to many, significant enough to persuade the Founders to establish Constitutional barriers against it.
Nowadays, a new policy being recommended by states and municipalities in the U.S., while not identical, has surprising echoes of the past: the idea of quartering illegal migrants in the homes of citizens.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was among the first to float the idea, pitching it as an opportunity for homeowners to make extra income by housing migrants. Last month Adams declared, “There are residents who are suffering right now because of economic challenges. They have spare rooms.”
Now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has picked up the idea. Officials at the newly established Family Welcome Center on Cape Cod are asking local residents to provide host homes for migrants. Unlike NYC’s plan, the Massachusetts plan would not pay the hosts but would provide them “with things like gift cards, groceries and baby formula.”
None of the plans so far involves forced housing of migrants and refugees, yet the similarities to the past are concerning. As one respondent to Mayor Adams said, “Remember when the Founders fought a revolution in part over forced quartering? Was a core reason for becoming a new nation.”
It is discouraging to see what that “new nation” has become.