Maine is facing a humanitarian crisis.
In Portland alone, nearly 1,000 people — men, women and children who are in this country legally, often after fleeing political or religious violence in their home countries — are being put at risk of homelessness, hunger and illness.
But unlike many of the humanitarian tragedies we are used to seeing on the news — disease, natural disaster, war — this catastrophe is wholly preventable and within our power to stop.
Members of Maine’s religious community, including the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, the Maine Council of Churches and others, are calling upon the Maine Legislature to take immediate action to avoid this crisis and protect some of our state’s most vulnerable residents.
Earlier this week, a Maine Superior Court Justice issued his ruling in a case that had pitted some of the state’s largest cities against the LePage administration, which was trying to unilaterally deny General Assistance benefits to men, women and children who are lawfully seeking asylum here, but who aren’t allowed to work under federal rules.
They are families who want to support themselves and build a better life, like generations of immigrants before them, in the United States. They are ready and able to contribute to our communities and our economy, but they need a short-term bridge as they navigate arcane federal rules.
The Superior Court found that Gov. Paul LePage and the Department of Health and Human Services had overstepped their authority, but the ruling also left the status of aid to asylum seekers in limbo. Now, the Legislature must intervene to resolve the stalemate.
Decisions about how we spend our money as a state have moral and ethical implications, and it’s important that as lawmakers debate how to balance the state budget they remember that there are real people and real lives behind the numbers on their spreadsheets.
Both the Hebrew and the Christian scriptures remind us that one of the roles and responsibilities of government is to provide for the common good — to care for the most vulnerable and marginalized of our society.
Cutting off assistance for new Mainers who have already faced extreme hardship, trauma and loss, simply because of where they were born, will not make their need for food or shelter evaporate. Instead, it will leave them homeless, hungry and destitute. Charities cannot make up the difference for those who will go without.
We ask that that the Maine Legislature and the governor recognize and acknowledge the dignity of every human being in our state and work together to prevent a crisis that will devastate families who have already faced a lifetime’s worth of trauma.
It’s within their power to ensure that our state doesn’t inflict unnecessary hardship on our friends and neighbors.
The focus in Augusta has been punishment and shame targeting the poor, when it should be on ensuring that every family in our state has access to the tools they need to stabilize their lives and become economically independent.
Instead of pitting one group of people against another, we need our lawmakers to find a way to transform our assistance programs to make them more effective.
And we must end the scapegoating and blame, the finger pointing and ugliness, and focus instead on our shared humanity and our responsibility to care for and protect every member of our community.
As Pope Francis has reminded us, “migrants and refugees are not pawns on the chessboard of humanity. They are children, women and men who leave or who are forced to leave their homes.”
We have an obligation to take action to protect these new arrivals from homelessness, hunger and illness.
Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill is a United Methodist pastor and the vice president of the Maine Council of Churches. Rev. Sue Gabrielson is the executive director of the Maine Council of Churches.