The city of Lewiston voted Tuesday night to continue providing General Assistance funding to current recipients who came to the city seeking asylum from danger in a foreign country.
The Sun Journal reported the City Council voted 6-1 to continue giving benefits those currently receiving aid while voting 4-3 to stop providing General Assistance to new asylum seekers starting Wednesday.
Lewiston has about 200 people who get General Assistance from the city while awaiting an answer on their request for asylum, according to figures from advocacy group the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.
Lewiston’s decision during budget deliberations Tuesday follows the course officials took last week in Portland, where about 900 people seeking asylum receive some type of General Assistance payments, most of which go to rent.
The city’s decisions come amid uncertainty about whether the state will provide any reimbursement for General Assistance given to people seeking asylum. Gov. Paul LePage last year cut state reimbursements for that purpose, arguing it constituted welfare for “illegal immigrants.”
People seeking asylum arrive legally in the United States, either with prior approval to enter the country while they await an asylum decision or after they enter the country on a tourist or business visa.
To qualify for asylum, applicants must document they have been harmed or threatened because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group affiliation.
LePage argued and won a court ruling that the state is not required to reimburse municipalities for General Assistance payments to asylum seekers, unless the state specifies asylum seekers are eligible for the program.
That application can take as long as two years to process, and people seeking asylum cannot get work permits for at least 150 days after they arrive.
Lewiston officials Tuesday expressed concern that if they started taking new asylum seekers while Portland did not, they would get an influx of new applications for General Assistance they could not financially support.
Portland officials said in a statement Tuesday they have set aside $5.2 million in the next year’s budget to support the continuation of General Assistance to asylum seekers receiving vouchers as of Tuesday. To support asylum seekers getting GA, the city set aside a separate Community Support Fund of $2.63 million.
That fund, the city said, can accept contributions from public and private sources in structure it said would allow the city to respond to “the changing environment” around state reimbursements for GA payments to asylum seekers.
The fate of compromise bill LD 369, calling for the state to continue providing GA to asylum seekers for up to two years, has not yet been determined as it awaits a promised veto from LePage and an override vote in the Legislature expected later this month.