PORTLAND, Maine — Activists opposed to Gov. Paul LePage’s proposals to limit or eliminate state-funded public assistance for some immigrants and other Mainers in economic peril will march and rally Thursday evening in Monument Square.
Hosted by the Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition, a diverse and growing group of 33 advocacy and faith organizations, the march will start at 5:30 p.m. in Lincoln Park and end in Monument Square with songs and speeches from community members, according to organizers.
The rally targets LD 369, a LePage-initiated bill sponsored by Auburn Sen. Eric Brakey that would make undocumented immigrants ineligible for General Assistance, an emergency aid program administered by cities and towns, but funded in part by state government.
As part of his aggressive welfare reform agenda, LePage has taken a number of steps to limit aid to undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. Those efforts have taken a disproportionate toll on immigrants in Greater Portland, advocates say, because people fleeing oppression in other countries tend to settle in Maine’s largest city.
In many cases, immigrants wait months to find out if they qualify for refugee status or work permits, and during those intervals, they rely on General Assistance for sustenance.
The Maine Municipal Association, with Portland and Westbrook as partners, has filed suit against the LePage administration for rules it is trying to implement to limit state General Assistance reimbursement to cities that provide aid to undocumented immigrants or asylum seekers.
Organizers of Thursday’s event also take issue with LePage’s proposed two-year budget.
“The budget doesn’t reflect the values of the Maine people,” said Alain Nahimana the coordinator of the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition. “Le Page’s policies are anti-immigrant and take advantage of people.”
Activists like Michael Anthony are attending because they believe that the Portland City Council needs to take a stand against the LePage administration’s “xenophobic tactics” that Anthony believes are used to divide our communities.
“Let’s continue to make Portland an example on the East Coast of how a people-oriented city should be,” wrote Anthony on the event’s Facebook page.
So far, 254 people have clicked “going” on the event’s Facebook page, with many leaving positive comments.
But it’s not just immigrants’ rights that protestors will be fighting for. According to Nahimana, the rally is meant to speak for any marginalized group, including workers, women, students and people of color.
“Women need more rights, workers need a better pay and poor people need to be welcomed into more homeless shelters and also receive help out of them,” said Nahimana. “Too many people are being pitted against each other, instead of working together to make a better Maine.”
According to the 2013 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the official poverty rate for blacks and African Americans was 50.7 percent in Maine compared to 27.6 percent nationally, although Maine has one of the lowest percentages of black and African American residents in the U.S.
“We want to emphasize that we are Maine, we are all Maine,” said Nahimana. “There’s no us and them. We are Maine.”