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The confusion over a proposal to house asylum seekers in Unity highlights the absurdity, and troubling shortfalls, in part of America’s broken immigration system.
Officials in Portland say more than 1,500 people who are seeking asylum in the U.S. have arrived in the city this year. Many have been housed at the Portland Expo, a sports facility that has been used as an emergency shelter.
The city plans to stop using the Expo to house the new arrivals in mid-August. It is not clear where many of the roughly 250 people currently staying there will go.
Claude Rwaganje, founder of Prosperity Maine, a Portland group that teaches financial skills to immigrants, told the Portland Press Herald that the asylum seekers he spoke to just wanted to live somewhere safe and peaceful, no matter where it was.
In June, the Greater Portland Council of Governments sent a proposal to MaineHousing and the governor’s office suggesting that some asylum seekers be housed at Unity Environmental University (formerly Unity College) since the school has a lot of unused dormitory space. Later in the month, Portland’s mayor and city manager sent a letter to Gov. Janet Mills urging her to accept the proposal.
Some people in Unity, a small town in Waldo County, were understandably confused and concerned about the unclear situation. There were even conflicting reports over whether the university was still considering the proposal to house asylum seekers on campus. The school’s president, Melik Peter Khoury, said the school needed a much more comprehensive plan — and a source of funding — to consider the proposal.
It is unclear where such a comprehensive plan would come from.
“Right now we’re kind of all in limbo,” Unity Selectman Antonio “Tony” Avila told the Morning Sentinel last week.
“Unfortunately we’re in the passenger seat of this car and someone else is driving it,” he added. “We have no control on this topic.”
The fact that leaders in Unity feel they have no control is a big problem. As is the fact that asylum seekers at the Expo feel the same way. Some recently protested conditions at the Expo and the uncertainty surrounding where they will live.
It is unclear who has control on this topic, and even who should.
Under federal law, immigrants who have been persecuted or fear that they will be persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or their social group membership can petition for asylum in the U.S. They must be in the U.S. to file for asylum.
Because they are barred by federal law from working for at least six months after filing paperwork for a work permit, most asylum seekers have few financial resources. Unlike those already granted refugee status who are resettled by the federal government, there are too few federal resources that are dedicated to those seeking asylum.
In Maine, most recently arrived asylum seekers are living in Portland and South Portland with the support of those communities and nonprofit charitable organizations, with some money from the state.
“As a city of 68,000 people, we’re just not equipped to manage the volume, in terms of need, when it comes to people who are looking for General Assistance benefits,” Portland Mayor Kate Snyder said last week during an appearance on a talk show hosted by conservative Matt Gagnon, who is a Bangor Daily News columnist. “We don’t have the housing, we don’t have the emergency shelter, we don’t have the staff to support people with those needs.”
“We’re doing everything we can, and it is not enough. So that’s why we really need help,” Snyder added.
That help should come first and foremost from the federal government, which should have a more coordinated program for asylum seekers. It should also let asylum seekers work sooner. Because that federal help has not arrived, state government must play a larger role.
We recognize, however, that this is tricky. Although the state should play a bigger role in supporting asylum seekers, it could be problematic if bureaucrats decided where new Mainers live without their input or the input of a host community.
Although the Unity proposal may sound good, it does raise many questions. Can a community of 2,300 people support hundreds of new arrivals? Will they be isolated from growing communities of new Mainers? Is housing them in a community with no public transportation that is far from a higher density of needed services and likely employers a good idea?
These, and many other questions, highlight the need for a much more comprehensive discussion and plan for Maine’s new residents. This work, with support from the federal government, should have happened a long time ago.
Portland’s Unity proposal may not be the right solution. But, it should finally prompt a fuller and more geographically diverse conversation that leads to new housing options for Maine’s asylum-seeking residents.
