Indulge me for a moment as I recall some recent Maine history and the lessons we might learn from it.
It was nine years ago this month that Democrat lawmakers in the Maine House of Representatives invoked a rarely-used parliamentary maneuver to protect violent criminal aliens from deportation. Without a public hearing or a debate and vote on the floor of the House, they killed a Governor’s bill (LD 1652) I sponsored to cut off state funding to Portland and any other municipality that provides a safe harbor for illegals.
Here’s the bill’s summary:
Speaker of the House Sara Gideon of Freeport called the bill “blatantly racist.” Check it out: Maine Liberals Continue To Enable Sanctuary Cities – The Maine Wire (March 28, 2016).
Portland has been a magnet and a harboring haven for violent criminal aliens since 2003. We know of at least two Mainers who were murdered by foreign-born “new American” illegal immigrants in the last ten years. In both cases, the perps had compiled lengthy rap sheets prior to committing the murders. Freddie Akoa’s murderers had 82 pages worth of previous arrests and convictions, but were never deported. See Court documents: Portland homicide victim beaten to death.
A Sudanese killer, whose nickname is “Bang Bang,” also had multiple arrests before murdering 19-year-old Trey Arsenault of Westbrook on May 25, 2015.
Details here: Sudanese immigrant pleads guilty in Portland recording studio murder WGME (March 3, 2017)
photo courtesy of WGME
From the WGME newscast:
“….Majok was not a U.S. citizen.
He came to the U.S. from Sudan in 2002.
The victim’s mother, Nancy Laxson, says she believes Majok should have been deported after committing other crimes.
‘I’m a nurse, I help everybody, and I think when you do something wrong you don’t have the right to be here,’ Laxson said. ‘It’s not fair, if that had happened to him a long time ago, Trey would still be here, but we can’t take back time, so hopefully we can make laws that will help other people.'”
That mother’s plea fell on deaf ears.
The Democrats just don’t give a damn.
They will have another chance to redeem themselves before the current legislative session ends in June.
Rep. Mike Soboleski (R-Phillips) has sponsored an updated version of the bill I sponsored in 2016. It has not yet emerged from the Revisors Office, so we don’t have an LD number or a committee assignment yet. I will let you know as soon as I know.
In the meantime, be mindful that the odds of passage and enactment are slim to none, given the Democrat majorities in both chambers and the lame-duck Janet Millstone in the Blaine House.
The purpose of forcing a floor debate and a roll call vote is to get every single incumbent on record ahead of next year’s midterm elections, when all 186 seats in the Maine Legislature will be on the ballot. If they’re serious about reclaiming Maine from the open-borders lunatics, GOP challengers will need to make that vote a central issue of the campaign season.
Rest assured that Maine First Project will not flinch from taking the lead on this culture war issue that some conservatives shy away from. We were the only organization in the state that showed up last year at the public hearing and submitted testimony in opposition to installing Gov. Millstone’s illegal alien resettlement agency (“Office of New Americans”) in the executive branch of state government.
Here’s my testimony on the ONA bill: Freebies for Foreigners, Waitlists for Mainers: Gov. MilIstone’s Perfect Storm.
Our team will continue to recruit, train, and mobilize a grassroots army of peaceful, patriotic Mainers who are committed to restoring Maine to The Way Life Should Be. Together, we will reclaim our magnificent state of Maine from the unhinged Marxist tyrants who dominate state government, academia, the K-12 swamp, and the Fake News media.
PS
In case you missed it, here’s my commentary last week on the escalating legal confrontation between the Trump Justice Department and the Millstone administration:
graphic courtesy of The Maine Wire