Obscured by this spring’s debate about whether Maine communities should provide General Assistance to asylum seekers was a chief reason why they need to rely on public support.
Federal law prohibits those who have applied for asylum — immigrants seeking to avoid persecution, torture or worse in their home countries — from applying for a work permit for five months. Processing the permit can take more than a year. Allowing them to work sooner would lessen the need for public support.
This is why Sen. Angus King has introduced federal legislation to shorten the work permit waiting period to 30 days after a complete application is filed. He introduced the same bill last year, but it has taken on added urgency in Maine.
His bill undoubtedly will get caught up in the national immigration debate that swallows up most efforts to change our current broken system. But this small fix would be a big help to asylum seekers and the communities where they live.
“It’s time that we reduce the mandatory waiting period so that we can give asylum seekers a better shot at the opportunities they came to this country to pursue in the first place, help municipalities maintain their already constrained finances and bring eager workers into our economy at a time when many companies are looking for them,” King said as he introduced the bill on the steps of Portland City Hall on Friday. “This is a common sense change that I hope can result in a better situation for everyone.”
The added urgency here in Maine is a result of the LePage administration’s efforts to limit public benefits to immigrants.
In June 2014, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services informed municipalities that they weren’t to give out General Assistance to those who didn’t fall under the definition of “qualified alien” under federal law. The people left out of that classification include hundreds of Maine residents, including many in the Portland and Lewiston areas, in the midst of seeking asylum so they can remain in this country.
DHHS issued the new policy guidance despite Attorney General Janet Mills’ conclusion that the change — like a previously developed, broader rule proposal from the department that would have cut off general assistance for all noncitizens — was illegal. Gov. Paul LePage followed up with a letter to municipalities in which he said the state would withhold General Assistance reimbursement from any town or city that doesn’t comply with the administration’s unilateral rule.
A year later, after the matter ended up in court, Maine Superior Court Justice Thomas D. Warren ruled that the LePage administration, under federal law, had no obligation to reimburse towns and cities that awarded General Assistance to noncitizens not considered “qualified aliens.” But, he found, the administration had flouted state law in its attempt to implement such a substantive policy change without following formal rulemaking procedures.
A legislative resolution to the dispute — a bill that affirmatively allows asylum seekers to receive General Assistance from towns and cities for up to two years — is hanging in the balance, pending the outcome of LePage’s legal dispute with the Legislature over the validity of 65 vetoes. Even if the end result is that the bill is a valid Maine law, it might not be the end of the issue: A group has formed to launch a people’s veto of the General Assistance extension to asylum seekers.
By proposing to condense the waiting period before an asylum seeker can seek permission to work, King is proposing a federal fix that could put much of this dispute in Maine to rest, help asylum seekers and reduce the expense of General Assistance at the municipal and state levels.
King also could seek to include asylum seekers under the definition of “qualified alien” in federal law in order to further put the question to rest here in Maine. But we understand he already is engaging in an epic political struggle to enact even this minor — but helpful — change in federal law.
