ROCKLAND, Maine — Two speakers at the Monday night meeting of the City Council spewed racist comments in response to the council’s consideration of an ordinance to not cooperate with federal immigration officials.
A teen from Rockland said he is terrified that the council will not cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement. He said this would allow the country to be flooded with people who will destroy everything “our people” have built.
He claimed this was about the replacement of the white race. He said whites will become a minority.
The teen also claimed that when immigrants pour into the community he will face violence every day with gangs of immigrants attacking people.
A man, who identified himself as Harold Watson of Rockland, spoke via Zoom and repeated the same racist comments.
He said hordes of invaders would turn the streets into war zones, hospitals into plague pits and the economy into a welfare sinkhole for the unworthy.
Once his three minutes were over and Mayor Adam Lachman informed him his time was up, the speaker spewed an obscenity.
After the teen spoke, former Councilor Joseph Steinberger responded to the youth’s comments.
Steinberger noted his wife was an immigrant and has made a big contribution to the community.
He also pointed out his father came to the United States from Germany prior to World War II, and that if he hadn’t been allowed into the United States, he would have been killed.
Steinberger urged the council to try to reach a compromise on the ICE cooperation issue, saying the divisions in the country are the greatest threat.
After the public comment portion of the meeting, Councilor Penny York quoted from the plaque at the pedestal of the Statute of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” York noted no one in the room is originally from here.
“None of us have the right to claim this as our place and kick people out,” she said.
This story appears through a media partnership with Midcoast Villager.