PORTLAND, Maine - Municipal officials and local business leaders in Portland are supporting a measure that would help asylum seekers gain access to state aid. They cite important economic reasons for why Maine should help asylum seekers trying to start a new life here.
The LePage administration, meanwhile continues to regard them as illegal aliens, and argues that welfare dollars should be instead spent to assist elderly and disabled Mainers.
Asylum seekers can be good for business - that was the message being hammered home outside Portland City Hall Monday afternoon. In fact, says Chris Hall of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, asylum seekers are essential for economic growth in places like Maine, where an aging workforce and stagnant population growth present real challenges.
"There are communities all over the country, including some in New Hampshire even, who are affirmatively seeking immigrants of all kinds to boost their economic base," Hall says. "So we're in a global competition for talent, some of our sister cities are out there aggressively seeking these folks, and we've got to do everything we can to make them welcome here or we're going to lose out economically."
Hall was among those urging lawmakers to pass LD 369 - a bill that's due to come up for debate this week that would help ensure asylum seekers remain eligible for General Assistance aid.
Last week a Superior Court judge issued an opinion affirming the state's right to withhold GA payments to immigrants who cannot prove they're here legally. But supporters of LD 369 say the state's rationale is short-sighted. Tae Chong is a business counselor with Coastal Enterprises Inc., where he helps immigrants set up or strengthen their own businesses.
"Maine needs more young, skilled workers, and the immigrant refugee population that's here in Maine are some of the people that could fill that need," Chong said.
Chong says 50 percent of "new Americans" that have come to Maine in the last five years have college degrees or better. Business owner Aimee Nyirakanyana came as an asylum seeker from Rwanda. "Because of General Assistance, I am who I am today," she said.
Nyirakanyana now owns an African grocery store in downtown Portland, but says the GA payments were an essential financial lifeline during the months when she was awaiting asylum and not allowed to work. "So helping these people is very important."
You know, everything requires difficult decisions and choices," says Maine's Health and Human Services Comissioner Mary Mayhew. Mayhew says the public needs to separate immigration law from state welfare benefits. "This is about making sure that we have dollars being spent for our elderly, for our disabled, for our citizens of this state that are needing critical services."
Mayhew underlined the position of the LePage administration, which characterizes asylum seekers as illegal immigrants and points to a federal law barring them from receiving government benefits, as part of the policy behind its welfare reform program.
Mayhew says the state wants to prioritize welfare payments to help the thousands of elderly and disabled Mainers in need of state aid. "We have limited resources in this state, and we need to be supporting those individuals and their families."
In last week's ruling, the judge also found that the state overstepped its authority by not going through the proper rule-making process last year when it directed municipalities to stop providing General Assistance benefits to certain immigrants, including those seeking asylum.