“As Maine Goes, So Goes the Nation” still lingers as a popular axiom except of course, it’s just no longer true. Politically, the state hasn’t been an accurate bellwether of elections for decades. Yet now, in the context of illegal immigration, Maine once again bears watching, despite its 2,400 miles distance from the southern border. Sadly, the Pine Tree State has just fallen victim to a well-funded national campaign by outside special interests intent on altering local policy so that illegal immigration is further rewarded and expanded. Although not well publicized, it’s a prized conquest for the open-borders left, likely to be repeated in other rural states.
Maine is now the newest official state-funded chapter of the national Office of New Americans (ONA). Thanks to deceptive marketing, media complicity, and a rushed last-minute legislative push, the euphemistically titled, “An Act to Develop Maine’s Economy and Strengthen Its Workforce by Establishing an Office of New Americans,” passed. Maine will now coordinate with other member states (17 and growing) in a consortium to advance illegal alien-friendly legislation; devise methods to lobby for federal funds; and, most urgently, to advocate collectively for work permits so that migrants otherwise ineligible to work under law can take jobs from American citizens and legal immigrants.
Supporters told Mainers that the purpose of the new ONA is to “attract and integrate immigrants into the work force,” failing to mention no distinctions will be made between legal immigrants and illegal aliens. No apparent disclosure was made about the fact that ONA is an initiative of the American Immigration Council (AIC), which lobbies state governments to establish taxpayer-funded ONA offices. The AIC is the policy arm of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, both heavily funded by the open-borders and amnesty-supporting Foundation to Promote Open Society, founded by left-wing billionaire George Soros. Nor was there much discussion as to how the plan’s goal of adding 75,000 new migrants (legal or otherwise) over five years made any sense given Maine’s current migrant crisis that fuels record homelessness, shelter shortages, and financial emergencies in Portland.
Statewide, media and NGOs were all on board. Given the lack of disclosures about ONA’s open-borders, globalist agenda, perhaps the most ironic statement of support came from the Portland Press Herald’s Editorial Board: “The establishment of a valuable statewide office (ONA), among other support, must not be clouded by anti-immigrant untruths and half-truths.”
One moment of honesty – as shameless and audacious as it was – came from Tobin Williamson, advocacy manager for the powerful Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, when he admitted legal and illegal distinctions are meaningless: “One aspect of the bill we like is that it does not distinguish between types or categories of immigrants.”
Things moved quickly, whisked along by the usual false promises of how mass migration will cure labor shortages and advance prosperity, and accelerated by Democrat-party control of both state chambers and the governor’s seat. (It was, after all, just last August when Governor Janet Mills signed the executive order directing her administration to develop the plans for the new migrant office and to draft a bill to secure the required legislative funding.)
When the initial attempt to pass the ONA legislation, LD 2167, as a standalone bill failed to gain support, the left simply shifted tactics using an old familiar ploy seen so often in Washington, D.C. The entirety of the bill was instead buried 185 pages into the 250 page supplementary must-pass budget bill just hours before the legislature was set to adjourn. Not surprisingly, the bill passed both the Maine House and Senate comfortably along party lines with only one Democrat opposing. Governor Mills has now signed it.
As the Maine Wire observed (the only news outlet in the state opposed to the ONA), “When it was proposed as a standalone bill, lawmakers would have been able to vote based simply on their opinions of the ONA. When the bill was included in the budget, however, lawmakers were forced to decide between opposition to the state funded resettlement program, and the need to approve funding for essential state operations and services.”
While state legislature sessions are now winding down across the country, make no mistake, the open borders lobby and its Trojan Horse-tactics are setting the stage to infiltrate more states. Maine got “rolled” and the takeaway lesson is twofold. Even states far removed from the border – as small as they may be – are prime destinations for illegal aliens and prime targets for advocacy groups to institutionalize mass migration. More importantly, hard and long-working citizens in rural states far from urban chaos can sometimes let down their guard wondering what all the fuss is about. It’s an attitude the mass immigration lobby depends on and exploits.
Thanks now to the formalization of Maine’s new Office of New Americans, Portland’s migrant crisis is likely to spread statewide.
Without citizen awareness and engagement, and public demands for full transparency in the legislative process, “As Maine Goes, So Goes the Nation.”
As Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”