Immigration

New Census data released last month showed more than 14,000 business applications were filed statewide in 2023.

Part of the money will help support asylum seekers, which is likely to encounter opposition from Republican lawmakers.

GOP lawmakers are increasingly critical of the tens of millions spent to house asylum seekers but have yet to offer concrete alternative solutions.

The failure to advance the bill after four months of negotiations ensures that immigration will remain a key campaign issue in the 2024 presidential and congressional election with possible implications for down ballot contests in state legislatures.

The UMaine system plans to offer residency waivers as soon as this fall.

The program brought together musicians and storytellers of Wabanaki, Congolese, and Puerto Rican heritage.

Immigrant legal groups in Maine are concerned that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Boston is denying asylum cases at a rate far higher than the national average. And they’re suing the federal government to try to figure out why.

Senate Democrats had hoped to include a pathway to citizenship provision in a $3.5 trillion dollar spending package they are trying to pass through a process called reconciliation, which would allow them to avoid a Republican filibuster.

A group of business and higher education leaders from Maine is asking Senators Susan Collins and Angus King to include immigration reform in the next federal budget package.

Soeun’s case is part of a nationwide story. In the wake of the Vietnam War, the U.S. resettled over one million refugees from Southeast Asia. For countless families fleeing violence, resettlement promised safety and security.