Tipsheet

Committee Advances Plan for ‘Office of New Americans' in Maine. Here's What State Republicans Had to Say

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  February 08, 2024 11:30 AM

Maine Republicans are sounding off against a Democratic plan to create an Office of New Americans that aims to assist in the economic and civic integration of “immigrants" in the state. 

The State and Local Government Committee advanced the proposal by a 6-3 vote on Tuesday, with all Republicans in opposition. If signed into law, the ONA would create a two-person office within the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation and the Future.

“Everywhere you look across Maine, there are help wanted signs. We need workers, and New Americans, who want to support themselves and their families, can be one important part of that solution,” Gov. Janet Mills said when announcing the ONA plan. “My Administration will do what we can to ensure that every person can contribute to our economy and successfully enter and stay in our workforce.”

Mills continued, “As we strengthen our economy by attracting talented people to work in Maine, may this Office help us fully harness the contributions of New Americans who have chosen to make our state their home.” 

The activities with which the ONA will undertake the integration of immigrants into the workforce, as laid out in LD 2167, include:

  • Improving pathways for professional accreditation and licensure;
  • Increase employment, retention and advancement of immigrant employees;
  • Expanding, improving and increasing access to English language learning programs;
  • Supporting the expansion of access to legal services and protections;
  • Partnering with and supporting municipalities, school administrative units, educational institutions, community-based organizations and businesses providing assistance or opportunities to immigrants;
  • Working with the state’s refugee resettlement nonprofits to support the goals of the ONA.

If passed, starting Feb. 1, 2026, the ONA will be directed to provide a report to the governor biennially with information and recommendations relevant to the office’s “work and needs.”

Additionally, the bill proposes establishing the ONA advisory council as 19-member body that will advise the ONA on “matters affecting the long-term economic and civic integration of immigrants in the State.” (The Maine Wire)

GOP opponents argued Maine residents need to be prioritized.  

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“You simply cannot have an open border and generous welfare state,” said GOP state Rep. Mike Soboleski. “It will eventually collapse the system. Maine taxpayers are already overtaxed and struggling to make ends meet with day to day costs exploded by inflation and overspending in Washington, D.C. Our people do not deserve and cannot bear the burden of supporting an additional 75,000 people in this state...We need to take care of our people first."

According to The Maine Wire, Soboleski also got into a heated exchange about the measure with the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Rep. Deqa Dhalac, the nation’s first Somali-born mayor.

“Do you know the number of immigrants receiving welfare versus non-immigrants who are receiving welfare?” Dhalac asked Soboleski.

Soboleski said he did not know, but that he had recently visited a homeless encampment Bangor with 40 Mainers “freezing right now, without any services at all,” and the Hope House shelter, which Soboleski said is “begging for money that they don’t have.”

“We need to put our Maine citizens first,” Soboleski told Dhalac.

“So you’re saying we care about our Mainers that have been here for 400 or so years, but rather we do not care for the ones that are arriving? Because some of these folks are also homeless and do not have homes,” Dhalac followed up.

“That’s unfair. That’s incredibly unfair to say,” Soboleski shot back. “Because we need to take care of our people first.”

“The people that are coming here now aren’t escaping death, persecution — they’re coming here because they’re economic migrants, and they’re looking for a more economically sound life to have,” Soboleski said. “I appreciate that — go through the system.” 

Republican state Rep. Katrina Smith echoed Soboleski's concerns. 

Gov. Mills “is placing people who arrived illegally in our state above Mainers currently undergoing severe economic difficulties," Smith said during testimony.  “A new office to continue to advance the federal government’s illegal immigration policy in Maine is severely tone deaf to the hardships our people are facing." 

At one point, Dhalac also made the case for why the "New Americans" should be prioritized over veterans, arguing it's necessary because former members of the U.S. military have the advantage of speaking English.