It sure looks like the skids are greased in Augusta — on both sides of the aisle — to overwhelm Maine with at least 75,000 more illegal immigrants over the next 5 years.
Sadly, Gov. Millstone’s proposal for a government-run alien resettlement agency (LD 2167) appears to be on a fast track to enactment after Tuesday’s public hearing. By the time it reaches the floor of the House in the next month or two, I’m afraid the bandwagon will be all but unstoppable.
It didn’t need to turn out this way.
Even with hefty Democrat majorities in both the House and Senate, Janet Mills still needs weak-kneed, unprincipled Republicans on board to make her Foreigners First dream come true.
Janet whistled, and the RINOs came running to join her caravan!
Before we call out those feckless legislators by name, I want to give credit to several GOP state reps who confronted and pushed back against the open-borders madness that afflicts so many of their colleagues in Augusta.
These three Republicans were bright lights in the dark Statehouse swamp on Tuesday afternoon:
- Rep. Mike Lemelin of Chelsea
- Rep. Katrina Smith of Palermo
- Rep. Mike Soboleski of Phillips
Lemelin, Smith, and Soboleski were the only GOP legislators who showed up at the public hearing on Tuesday to testify against Mills’ proposed alien resettlement agency. It was an honor to be in the room to watch them spar with Democrats on the committee who are eager to shove Mainers aside to make way for the next busload of illegals that arrives in Portland.
The only other Republican legislator who showed up to address the committee was LD 2167 co-sponsor Rep. Amanda Collamore of Pittsfield. She said she was literally shaking as she delivered her remarks, after getting “a lot of really bad feedback” for co-sponsoring the bill. Collamore made the baseless claim that the bill would get people “already living in our state working, so they can live independently without additional taxpayer support.”
She was referring to the push to allow so-called “asylum seekers” to get work permits immediately rather than waiting six months. The six-month prohibition dates back to the Clinton administration as a tool to discourage economic migrants from filing bogus asylum claims as a means of landing a job while their claim is pending — a process that can take years.
But upwards of 80% of asylum claims are rejected, at which point the claimants become immediately deportable. How many of them are likely to self-deport at that point? Somebody should have asked Collamore.
In any case, at least 90 percent of the approximately 10,000 “asylum seekers” who have settled in Maine since Janet Mills took office have already been here for more than six months, making them eligible for the coveted work permits. How many of them have gone to work? Whatever that number is, it can’t be very many, or the cheap-labor lobbyists at the Chamber of Commerce would stop whining about the workforce shortage.
Expedited work permits are just another magnet to attract economic migrants and incentivize them to file unwarranted asylum claims that will ultimately be rejected — by which time they will have blended into the population with no fear of deportation.
That’s why it was so shameful for Republican leaders in the Legislature to push LD 1050 through the House and Senate last year. It was a toothless, virtue-signalling resolution sponsored by Sen. Eric Brakey asking the feds to let asylum seekers go right to work within 30 days of setting foot in Maine. Co-sponsored by GOP House leader Billy Bob Faulkingham and Senate GOP leader Trey Stewart, LD 1050 passed the Senate on a 30 to 0 rollcall and was rammed through the House “under the hammer.” Mills signed it into law on May 11, 2013.
The passage of LD 1050 last year allowed squishy, go-along-to-get-along Republicans to signal their virtue to the world. It also allowed Gov. Millstone to wrap herself in the mantle of bipartisanship when she issued her executive order on August 2nd calling for the creation of a taxpayer-funded alien resettlement agency.
Her press release last summer specifically cited the passage of LD 1050 as evidence of the bipartisan push to scrap the six-month waiting period.
See what I mean about the skids being greased?
To top it off, the two GOP co-sponsors of the Governor’s bill — Rep. Amanda Collamore and Sen. Rick Bennett — represent ruby-red conservative districts in rural Maine. What a slap in the face to all those MAGA voters, who will be among the first people shoved aside to provide benefits and preferences to the tens of thousands of “new Mainers” who are headed here from all over the world
Take that, you Deplorables!
I know I’m painting a depressing picture here, but I just want to accurately describe the political terrain we’re navigating. I’m optimistic long-term, but in the near term, we have to face the reality that’s in front of us.
To defeat LD 2167 in the House, we will need all the Republicans and at least 7 or 8 Democrats. Forget the Senate, it’s a lost cause with 22 Ds to 13 Rs.
Flipping 7 or 8 House Democrats would be difficult under the best of circumstances. But when you have at least one GOP defector in the House — Collamore — it makes the hill that much steeper to climb.
The good news is that the bill won’t come before the House for at least a few weeks, maybe more, and a lot can happen in that short time.
Regardless of the outcome on LD 2167, there are a couple of lessons we can take away from this.
The first lesson that comes to mind is the need to continue building a bench of Maine First candidates and activists at the local level. Our Mainers for Excellence in Educationinitiative is focused on organizing local groups of parents and taxpayers who are trained to hold their public servants accountable. Many of these folks will be ready to step up to state legislative races in future election cycles.
The other takeaway from the battle over LD 2167 is this: be wary of quick-fix solutions.
As much as I would like to see it happen, we’re not going to flip Maine from blue to red in a single election cycle. The wannabe totalitarians and diversity fascists are just too deeply entrenched in state government, academia, and the Fake News media to be dislodged overnight.
I estimate it will take at least 4 to 5 election cycles to transform Maine from blue to purple, and another 4 or 5 cycles to get from purple to red.
So stay tuned. The battle over Gov. Millstone’s proposed alien resettlement agency ain’t over till it’s over. In the meantime, remember the words of New England’s most famous practitioner of confrontational politics, Sam Adams:
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
Soldier on, my friend.
Best Regards,
Hon. Lawrence Lockman
Maine House of Representatives, 2012-2020
Co-founder & President,
Maine First Project