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| David Sharp/AP |
Small communities not far from the Maine-Canada border have been inundated with immigrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and ended up in northern New England homeless and unable to work.
Maine is the latest East Coast location, after Massachusetts, New York City, and New York state, to face major financial and logistical challenges as a result of the more than 2 million immigrants released into the country from the border 2,000 miles away since President Joe Biden took office.
Most of the newcomers crossed the border into Texas and are originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola, and they chose to go to Maine because of the growing central African population in the area, according to Jessica Grondin, director of communications and digital services for the city of Portland.
Approximately 1,600 immigrants, including asylum-seekers who must wait several years before having their claims decided, have traveled to the capital city since January. Portland has a population of 68,000 residents, making the influx of newcomers significant for the city government.
"While we're the largest city in the state, we are a pretty small large city, and we don't have a lot of the revenue streams," Grondin said in a phone call on Wednesday.
In April, the city moved 300 immigrants into the Portland Expo building as the city looked for longer-term housing. As a state that provides general assistance, including housing vouchers and food vouchers, to any person regardless of immigration status, it has put municipalities like Portland in a difficult position of having to accommodate those who show up. --->READ MORE HERE
A spokesperson for the City of Portland confirmed to Maine's Total Coverage on Tuesday that a hotel in Lewiston will house asylum seekers following the closure of the Portland Expo temporary shelter on Wednesday.
The news follows confirmation from the city at Monday's City Council meeting that the other hotel for migrants to be sent to is in Freeport.
The exact name and location of the hotels has not been disclosed.
More than 190 people from over 60 families currently live in the Expo, which has been used as an asylum-seeker shelter since April.
Under the federal McKinney–Vento Act, families with school-age children will have the choice of keeping their children in the school district they currently attend, or to put them into the school district they move to.
"If they are already students enrolled in the Portland Public Schools, they may choose to continue to attend our district instead of the new district where they are being temporarily housed," the Portland Public School district said in a statement to Maine's Total Coverage. "If that’s the case, PPS would split transportation costs for these students with the new district. Many of the Expo students enrolled in the late spring so are very new to the Portland Public Schools and haven’t had much time to build relationships with teachers and classmates here. They may prefer to start school in the new district where they are being housed rather than travel each day to our district, particularly if they are being housed farther away in communities like Freeport." --->READ MORE HERE
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