Maine’s Democrat governor just created an office to help import 75,000 poor migrants during the next ten years.
That inflow would add roughly one migrant for every 10 kids in Maine’s K-12 school system, and approximately one migrant for every 10 people in the state’s current workforce of 630,000. The desired inflow spotlights the routine bipartisan reach for short-term economic subsidies instead of the productivity-boosting policies that help Americans earn what they want and need to raise the next generation of Americans.
Central American migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, move on the road in Escuintla, Chiapas State, Mexico. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
“My order will develop a plan for a new office to help us ensure that Maine is fully drawing on the talents and skills of those who want to live and work in and contribute to our great state,” Gov. Janet Mills (D) announced on August 2 as she created the office. “This is a critical step for Maine’s economic future as we address our workforce shortage and support our communities and businesses.”
The office is being applauded by a network of business-backed national advocacy groups and by local pro-migration groups that will gain in the near term as the inflow of new consumers, renters, and workers hold down Americans’ wages and push up local rents.
Maine’s welcome policies are attracting many unskilled migrants from culturally distant countries.
“There were people talking about this town Portland, where if you got there, they would help,” a 35-year-old migrant from Angola told the Wall Street Journal in April. “She entered the U.S. in March with her three children.”
Wages in Maine are already low, partly because the massive inflow of President Joe Biden’s migrants provides employers and investors with much cheap labor in Maine and other states. For example, investors in nearby Boston and New York face little pressure to create jobs in Maine while the White House delivers new migrants to their downtown bus stations.
WATCH — Migrants Sleep on Sanctuary New York City Streets:
Saul AcevedoIn 2021, the state ranked 34th in wages per person — and wages are already falling — even at a major government shipyard — amid high inflation, spiking house prices, and rapid migration from distant countries. The state’s reliance on tourism also creates seasonal swings in jobs and wages.
The extra migrants will reduce pressure on companies to increase wages families need to raise their own kids. The nationwide pressure was described by the Wall Street Journal on August 3 when it reported small companies in the National Federation of Independent Business are ready to expand and must raise wages to recruit workers:
Seasonally adjusted, a net 38 percent [of employers] reported raising compensation, up 2 points from June’s lowest reading since May 2021. A net 21 percent plan to raise compensation in the next three months, down 1 point from June.
But in Maine, the growing number of legal and illegal migrants creates opportunities for employees to profit from abuse, illegal farm labor, or minimizing investment in productivity-raising machinery.
The migrants are also worsening the housing problems faced by Americans.
“The value of housing “goes up and up and up for a lot of reasons… [but] people’s incomes and people’s wages don’t.” Portland developer Kevin Bunker told the Courier-Gazette newspaper in March 2023. “They stagnate [and] you get this huge disconnect,” he added.
“Statewide, the median home price was $334,000 last year, up 13 percent over the year before,” the Bangor Daily News reported in January 2023. “That’s considered unaffordable for 72 percent of Maine households, despite a modest jump in median income levels last year.”
Local TV stations have spotlighted the expanding homeless and drug problems visible statewide.
But officials are prioritizing spending on migrants — especially on homes for migrants in good locations.
Portland “has an acute housing shortage and rising prices, heightening the challenge of finding places for newcomers to live,” the Wall Street Journal reported in April. “The pressure right now on emergency shelter is so incredible,” Portland’s pro-migration mayor, Kate Snyder, told the newspaper.
The inflow of migrants is also diverting government resources, including school resources from Maine’s children:
Some parents of school-age children at the family shelter [In Portland, Maine] said they were on school waiting lists, and the Portland district said it was dedicating more staff to help with a backlogged intake process. Through January the district said it has seen 612 new multilingual students begin this year, higher than any full year in more than 20 years of available records.
The migrants divert much taxpayer wealth to local merchants and real-estate owners, but they are not educated for productive work in the U.S. economy. In July 2022, the Christian Science Monitor reported:
Yet the city that has been one of the most benevolent in America toward outsiders now finds itself with 1,200 newcomers, most from Africa and the Caribbean. They have come to Portland because they heard it had received fellow travelers humanely. Most speak no English; they have no money, no relatives or friends to house them.
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[Haitian migrant Linode Lafleur said] “They take care of me here. They gave me food. They gave me a place, a motel room. Oh my God, I love it here. I will never leave.”
The inflow is being cheered on by business groups and by the groups that are paid to welcome more migrants.
“We need to aggressively expand our workforce by 2030, and there’s no better way to do that than by harnessing the skills, experience, and education of foreign-born professionals,” said a statement from Quincy Hentzel, president of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce.
“The need for in-migration and immigration to contribute to our workforce and economy has never been greater,” said Shanna Cox, president of the Lewiston Auburn Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce.
“We know this new office will address the unique needs of the New [emphasis added] Mainer communities,” said Fatuma Hussein, director of the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, which also provides advice for migrants dealing with “gender-based violence.”
“It has been impossible to keep up with new immigrant arrivals in Maine without one entity to coordinate the multiple agencies, organizations, and municipalities performing this work,” said Mufalo Chitam, director of Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.
The push for more migrants in Maine is being coordinated with a network of D.C.-based, business-backed pro-migration groups. The governor’s statement said:
The Governor’s Executive Order also directs GOPIF to participate in the Office of New Americans State Network, a consortium of U.S. states with dedicated offices or staff for coordinating immigrant integration. The Network is coordinated by a partnership of two organizations, World Education Services and the American Immigration Council.
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Maine will become the 19th state in the Network, following North Dakota and Utah in 2023; Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Illinois in 2022; and Colorado, Oregon, and Minnesota in 2021. Other Network states include Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, California, Washington, Nevada, and Virginia.
“We are thrilled to see Governor Mills’ Executive Order to create a statewide Office of New Americans,” said Rich André, Director of State and Local Initiatives at the American Immigration Council. “Maine now joins a bipartisan group of 18 other states that participate in the Office of New Americans State Network to share best practices and deepen their investment in immigrant and refugee inclusion.”
Extraction Migration
The federal government has long operated an unpopular economic policy of Extraction Migration. This colonialism-like policy extracts vast amounts of human resources from needy countries, reduces beneficial trade, and uses the imported workers, renters, and consumers to grow Wall Street and the economy.
The migrant inflow has successfully forced down Americans’ wages and also boosted rents and housing prices. The inflow has also pushed many native-born Americans out of careers in a wide variety of business sectors and contributed to the rising death rate of poor Americans.
The lethal policy also sucks jobs and wealth from heartland states by subsidizing coastal investors with a flood of low-wage workers, high-occupancy renters, and government-aided consumers.
The population inflow also reduces the political clout of native-born Americans, because the population replacement allows elites and the establishment to divorce themselves from the needs and interests of ordinary Americans.
In many speeches, border chief Alejandro Mayorkas says he is building a mass migration system to deliver workers to wealthy employers and investors and “equity” to poor foreigners. The nation’s border laws are subordinate to elite opinion about “the values of our country” Mayorkas claims.
Migration — and especially, labor migration — is unpopular among swing voters. A 54 percent majority of Americans say Biden is allowing a southern border invasion, according to an August 2022 poll commissioned by the left-of-center National Public Radio (NPR). The 54 percent “Invasion” majority included 76 percent of Republicans, 46 percent of independents, and even 40 percent of Democrats.
