Category: Blog

MeBIC stands with those expressing their anger and pain at the inequities built into our society through institutionalized and systemic racism and discrimination.  Racial justice and immigrant justice in the U.S. are inextricably intertwined.  MeBIC strives for fair and just laws and policies affecting the immigrants who are integral members of Maine’s communities and economy.  That work includes, and must include, striving for fairness and justice for all.

There can be no turning away from the disparate economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of color and immigrants, including in Maine, nor from the recent videos calling upon all of us to witness only a few in the long line of aggressions and brazen murders of African Americans.  These facts have laid unmistakably bare what people of color in the U.S., including immigrants, have long experienced – that power, due process, economic justice, health, and regard for life itself are not shared equitably in this nation, and have never been.

The future health of our democracy and of our national moral and economic core demands that those in or with power, whether due to their white race or their socio-economic clout, actively work to see the inequities and eliminate them.

Maine’s business community and economic leaders have power.  MeBIC welcomes the opportunity to work with its business and economic partners to deploy that power to take on the somber and urgent challenge to speak out and act to dismantle racism, xenophobia, and bigotry, to build a society which values and benefits all.

UPDATE re: How to help.  Donations of items are no longer requested at this time.  For volunteer opportunities and updates on other needs, see the United Way of Greater Portland’s volunteer opportunities page.

Learn more about the recent asylum seekers below, and find more ways to help here .

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In the past two weeks, about 300 asylum seekers, mostly from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have arrived in Portland after having entered the U.S. via the southern border.

These are not ordinary people.  They are people who not only had the courage to leave everything they knew and loved behind when conditions in their home countries threatened their lives and prospects, but also had the drive and determination to travel thousands of miles to South America and then thousands more, much of it on foot, to get to the U.S.   This was their destination because much of the world still views the U.S. as a country that offers freedom, democracy, safety, and opportunity.  Anyone who has made it this far is extraordinary, and will have much to contribute to their new chosen home.

As a longtime immigration lawyer, I was recently at the Expo, where the asylum seekers are temporarily sheltered.  I was volunteering with ILAP, Maine’s only nonprofit legal aid provider offering free asylum and other immigration law assistance, to provide legal information and triage the asylum seeker’s  immediate immigration law needs.   What I saw was heartening.

First, the outpouring of community support, from individuals, including many of Maine’s immigrants, organizations, and from state and city staff, is something of which Mainers can be proud.   This unexpected situation required all hands on deck, and the community has responded in kind.

Second, these asylum seeking individuals are all of working age, and can’t wait to become productive (even though federal law will prevent them from getting work permits for more than a half-year, unfortunately).   Individuals who arrived in the U.S. less than two weeks ago were already trying to learn English and were happy to practice the words they had learned so far as we spoke.  Many of them have school-age children who were playing, or sleeping, or eagerly trying to read donated children’s books.

These individuals are Maine’s future.  Maine’s population is aging, and our workforce is shrinking.  In every Maine county but two, there have been more deaths than births for several years running, and net population loss.  In Cumberland and Androscoggin counties, population is slightly up, or holding steady, due to the arrival of immigrants over the past two decades – immigrants just like these newest arrivals, who are both of working and childbearing age.

While Maine works hard to incentivize young adults to come to or stay in Maine through slick ad campaigns and promises of student loan forgiveness, immigrants are already coming, based on word of mouth of those who have come before them that Maine is welcoming, and safe, with good schools for their children. They bring vitality to our communities, growth to our workforce,  a new generation of Mainers to our schools, and a bright economic future.  They are Maine’s newest generation of workers, taxpayers, consumers, entrepreneurs, volunteers, neighbors, friends, family, and civically engaged citizens.

Nearly 90% of the job openings anticipated through 2024  in Maine will be due to baby boomers retiring.   Our labor shortage is already causing some businesses to hold steady or contract rather than grow, or to move out of state.   Whatever investment Maine puts into helping these asylum seekers in the short term is an investment in our long-term economic future.   Here’s how you can help in the short term. 

For the long-term, we must recognize that investing in these asylum seekers is not a Portland issue, but a statewide one.   We need to convene a big tent to discuss helping immigrants settle throughout Maine, where there are communities that are aging and shrinking and struggling to be reborn.  This big tent should include public and private partners, including state agencies, city governments, businesses and leaders such as chambers of commerce and economic development groups, nonprofit service providers, philanthropists, and immigrants.   Maine needs to tackle how to make sure that communities that want to welcome immigrants have the infrastructure to both attract, retain and integrate immigrants so that they, and as a result, their new communities, can succeed.  Portland is just many immigrants’ first stop, but it need not be their last.   The State and other communities should invest in immigrants as Portland and Lewiston have, and they’ll benefit, as have both Portland and Lewiston.

Contact MeBIC if you want to be a part of this discussion .

 

At MeBIC, we join all those who are horrified by and grieve the slaughter of 11 innocent people at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg on October 27, 2018. The shootings were a shocking, but perhaps also a sadly unsurprising event following a sharp increase in anti-Semitic incidents since 2016.

But this shooting was not just about one man’s hatred of Jews.   Reports are that the assailant directed special ire on social media towards the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), one of nine organizations nationwide that assist with resettlement of refugees. On the morning of the shooting, he posted “HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in.”

Unfortunately, many political leaders in the U.S. both at the federal and state levels are trying to drum up anti-immigrant sentiment to score political points through lies.   Refugees are not terrorists (any more than all white males in the U.S. are murderous anti-Semites because one man murdered eleven Jews). Mexicans are not all drug dealers and rapists.   Mothers and children and young people fleeing gang violence in Central American are not all MS-13 gang members. There is no “invasion” at the Southern Border in comparison to other years that justifies separating or detaining families, or closing our border to asylum seekers. (The number of apprehensions in FY 2018 were relatively consistent with the previous five years, and far below the high of 1.6 million apprehensions in FY 2000).

It is urgent that we speak out against hate, lies, and misinformation.   To do so, though, we need to be informed and be able to sort fact from fiction.

At MeBIC, through our website and e-newsletter, we will do our best to provide you with facts and to point you to resources and data to increase your knowledge about immigration law and policy.   Armed with accurate information and context, you’ll be better equipped to stand up and speak out to correct myths and lies before they create unnecessary fear, or, as we have just seen, far, far worse.