PORTLAND, Maine — About 900 immigrants seeking asylum in the city could be without both federal work permits and emergency-relief aid from the state for food or rent by July 1, which Portland Mayor Michael Brennan on Monday called a potential “humanitarian crisis.”
Portland is out between $4.5 million to $5.5 million in General Assistance payments since last year, when Gov. Paul LePage’s administration began withholding the state’s share of General Assistance from from municipalities that distribute the aid to people awaiting approval for their asylum requests with the federal government.
Portland officials and business leaders on Monday said continued denial of those payments stands to have an economic effect on the city and state whose population, if not for international migration, would have been on a steady decline rather than remaining flat.
“We are worried about losing some of the most talented people in our community,” said Chris Hall, CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.
About 50 percent of international immigrants have college degrees or higher levels of education, according to Tae Chong, a business counselor with Coastal Enterprises Inc. For the general population over 25 years old, about 18 percent of Mainers have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
The Legislature on Tuesday is scheduled to take up a bill that would specify that asylum seekers qualify for state General Assistance, a state and locally funded program that was originally intended to provide short-term and immediate financial help to a person in an unexpected crisis. The benefit, based on financial need, is intended to help with housing, food, medicine or other life essentials, including heating fuel payments.
The state’s budget for the program is set at about $13 million per year, up from $5.6 million in 2004. Under the current system, the state reimburses most municipalities at 50 percent. But Portland, Lewiston and Bangor are reimbursed at 90 percent. The higher rate is triggered when a city or town spends more than 0.03 percent of its total state property valuation on General Assistance.
Portland provided General Assistance to about 1,000 people seeking asylum last year, and Lewiston gave such funds to about 160 people.
Those are people like Maurice Namwira, a manager of a human rights organization who left the Democratic Republic of Congo for Portland about two years ago. People who apply for asylum have to wait at least six months before they can seek work and the wait for work permits can take even longer.
Namwira, who got a work permit after about six months and has an on-call job, said General Assistance is a “bridge” for immigrants during that period of time.
LePage and opponents of General Assistance for asylum seekers have targeted Portland’s program as wasteful and have described that group of legal residents of the United States as “illegals.”
Opponents have focused on what the program costs to taxpayers, which Namwira said ignores the contributions of recent immigrants, many from war-torn countries in Africa, to the state.
“If the input of immigrants is not shown according to what they are doing for the workforce, as taxpayers replacing an aging population, they should say, ‘OK, immigrant go back,’” Namwira said.
Chong, with CEI, said during a news conference Monday on the steps of Portland City Hall that the city would have 5,000 fewer people without international migration from 2000 to 2013.
That’s been enough to dramatically change the demographics of the city’s population. Chong, who was one of a distinct minority of non-white students during his time at Deering High School, said about 40 percent of the city’s children under 5 years old are of color.
“Imagine the number of businesses that wouldn’t have started without [immigrants],” Chong said. “If you look at Forest Avenue or Washington Avenue or Brighton Avenue, all those ethnic restaurants wouldn’t be here. Think of all the schools that might have shut down if we didn’t have 5,000 people come to the city of Portland.”
Amee Nyirakanyana, who came from Rwanda in 2009, started a Forest Avenue business Ebenezer African Grocery store in November 2011. She said she credits General Assistance with helping her get out of a family shelter and start working at Wendy’s.
That job paid minimum wage, she said, and was not enough to support her family. She later got help from CEI starting her business. Nyirakanyana said without General Assistance funding, the “state will be losing an important power in the community and the economy.”
Namwira, the former NGO manager in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said General Assistance support has allowed him to secure stable housing and get treatment for back pain while he looks for work and volunteers on the board of Portland Community Health Center and with the nonprofit Living with Peace.
“Mostly I’m strong because I got General Assistance. I came here with back pain, and I was treated, and now I’m serving the community,” he said. “Is it a lose or a gain? I think a gain.”
Lawmakers will cast their vote on that very question Tuesday.