American Mirror – by Victor Skinner
When officials in Portland, Maine convened a meeting of the Health & Human Services and Public Safety Committee Tuesday to discuss emergency measures to house a flood of illegal immigrants at The Expo – the local basketball arena – 72 mostly African asylum seekers had arrived in the previous three days.
By the end of the 3 ½-hour meeting, the total had jumped to 86, or about 20 percent, the Press Herald reports.
My story about arrival of 67 asylum seekers in the last 2 days has been updated with information about how you can donate to the Portland Community Support Fund. https://t.co/sf6kfbL5iX pic.twitter.com/75mxfXEqx9
— Randy Billings (@randybillings) June 11, 2019
“It’s not sustainable to have the only program in the whole darn country paid for by 67,000 people,” Portland City Counselor Jill Duson complained, referring the Portland Community Support Fund – the only municipally funded assistance program for asylum seekers in the U.S.
“It’s not about telling people don’t come,” she said. “It’s about being clear that the nine of 10 other programs we’re committed to are still here.”
A drastic increase in illegal immigrants seeking asylum at the Mexico border are requesting border officials direct them to Portland, mostly sub-Saharan Africans from countries like Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We heard that Maine was a place where a lot of people have been able to get asylum,” a man named Matare told the Press Herald in December. Matare explained how he and others traveled for two months, 13,100 miles through South and Central America, walking through jungles and over mountains, to arrive at the southern border.
There, they apply for asylum status and border patrol agents process the request. They are then released into the U.S., with many from Africa bused to San Antonio.
The situation is overwhelming San Antonio city officials, who are now working with charities and cities in other areas of the country to accommodate the uninvited guests. Portland, Maine is well-known for welcoming asylum seekers and is often described as a sanctuary city, though local officials have discouraged the label in the past.
Regardless, Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling has publicly courted illegal immigrants coming across the border and proudly barked back at President Trump when suggested relocating them to sanctuary cities this spring.
“Bring them on,” Strimling said, according to the Press Herald.
Weeks later, the city’s only shelter is well over capacity, as is a 75-person overflow at the Salvation Army. The $200,000 budget for the Portland Community Support Fund – money spent on food and other necessities for illegal immigrants as they wait to become eligible for state assistance – is now $86,000 over budget.
And that was before officials in San Antonio called this week with news that another 350 asylum seekers from Africa are on the way.
For those of you following along on the Congolese migrant influx in San Antonio, this is what made air on Thursday. A lengthier write-up including the struggles Catholic Charities is facing can be found here: https://t.co/MRIGBQuntl@KENS5 #kens5eyewitness pic.twitter.com/nJeC215LQv
— Jaleesa Irizarry (@JaleesaReports) June 6, 2019
“The plan was 350 of them would travel from San Antonio to Portland,” San Antonio interim Assistant City Manager Colleen Bridger told KENS 5. “When we reached out to Portland, Maine, they said, ‘Please don’t send us any more. We’re already stretched way beyond our capacity.”
Portland officials deny the claim, but they’re not denying the growing problem created by the city’s famed hospitality.
“We are, I think, in a very critical situation in this city,” Portland City Manager Jon Jennings told the city council on Tuesday.
Jennings told the Press Herald his counterpart in San Antonio made it clear the 350 making their way north now are only the tip of the iceberg.
U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to Del Rio Sector apprehended a large group of 116 individuals—from Angola, Cameroon and Congo—after they illegally crossed the Rio Grande River into the U.S. on Thursday: https://t.co/5VsJsD4nPF pic.twitter.com/HWGyVtzEC6
— CBP (@CBP) May 31, 2019
“He said this is just the beginning as there are currently between 1,500-2,000 African migrants at the border seeking asylum with the probability of more to come,” Jennings wrote in an email.
For now, Portland leaders plan to house the incoming at The Expo, at least until the Maine Red Claws start their season in October.
City councilors, meanwhile, are proposing “a one-time emergency appropriation” of $2 million to make sure they’re comfortable while they wait years for an asylum hearing.
http://www.theamericanmirror.com/portland-me-housing-illegals-from-africa-in-local-basketball-arena/