PORTLAND, Maine — U.S. Sen. Angus King wants the federal government to reduce the length of time people seeking asylum in the U.S. must wait to get a work permit.
King formally introduced the bill Friday morning on the steps of Portland City Hall, where government aid to people seeking protection from persecution in foreign countries has been a battleground between state and local officials.
He said the federal government should shorten the work permit wait for asylees to 30 days, down from 150 days, not just for humanitarian reasons but economic ones. He pointed to declining enrollment in Maine schools as a sign the state needs new residents entering the workforce.
“We have an economic catastrophe staring us in the face,” King said, citing declining enrollment in Maine schools in recent decades as a sign of coming workforce needs.
Chris Hall, leader of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, echoed that statement, saying employers most commonly cite a shortage of suitably skilled workers as a top problem. Making it easier for asylum seekers to get work solves two problems, he said.
“They need it, and we need it,” Hall said.
King also said the change stands to move asylum seekers more quickly off support from General Assistance, which many rely on as a bridge between the time they arrive in the country and the time they can start looking for work.
General Assistance is administered by cities and towns, with funding responsibility shared by state and municipal governments.
Philemon Dushimire, who fled his home country of Burundi in 2010 and arrived in Maine with a law degree, said that is his story. Dushimire, who spoke during King’s news conference, said he would have been able to find a job sooner and not require General Assistance funds for so long if his work permit wait were shorter.
“I was not able to get a job until 2012,” Dushimire said. “I needed General Assistance to get through a tough time.”
He said he’s working in the home care industry and plans to pursue a graduate degree at the University of Maine in the fall.
Mayor Michael Brennan said Portland has not estimated how much less the city would distribute in General Assistance if the wait for a work permit were shortened but that it would be less.
He said an estimated 50 percent of the asylum seekers who come to Portland have a college degree, holding other potential economic benefit for the city.
King’s bill proposal comes as the status of the state’s obligation to pay for General Assistance given to asylum seekers is being disputed before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. General Assistance funds help people pay for rent, food and other necessities.
The battle over those funds began when Gov. Paul LePage’s administration cut reimbursements to cities and towns for General Assistance paid to asylum seekers. He won a legal decision upholding the move.
A state bill extending asylum seekers’ eligibility for General Assistance is among 65 bills LePage has said he properly vetoed but which lawmakers argue he let pass into law without his signature.
King did not speak directly to the state-level political controversies but did attack the words the LePage administration used to characterize General Assistance for asylum seekers. LePage has stated that those immigrants are illegally in the country.
“They’re not illegal immigrants, they’re not illegal aliens, they are not illegal anything,” King said. “That has been the policy for about 70 years for people who are in distress.”
He cited the case of the SS St. Louis, a ship that unsuccessfully tried to deliver Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany to the U.S. in 1939, as “one of the darkest moments in American history.”
“Since then, we don’t do that anymore,” King said. “We have a process for people who are escaping persecution in their own country.”
King said reducing the wait for getting a work permit from 150 days to 30 days “is going to take a lot of work” in Congress, but the independent senator hopes that change carves out a niche of immigration reform, where he can find support on both sides of the aisle for either a standalone bill or to get the change worked into a broader immigration reform package.
King said he has not yet sought co-sponsors for the bill.