The United States is in the middle of a genuine open-borders crisis that is leading us, at best, to the collapse of our already unsustainable welfare state.
At worst, we’re sleepwalking into an unprecedented crime wave and terrorist attacks on American soil.
But for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, the far left Democrat who has represented Maine’s coastal “from away” population since 2008, the solution is not stronger border security but more migrants and more taxpayer-funded busses to bring them to Maine.
In comments this week, Pingree urged her colleagues to prioritize open borders and freebies for non-citizens over national security and securing the border.
Pingree alleges that encouraging more jobless, homeless, non-English speaking migrants to come to the U.S. — and Maine in particular — will solve a worker shortage.
But there’s no evidence that this is true.
The vast majority of the 5,000-10,000 asylum seekers who have been re-settled in Maine are already eligible for work permits because they’ve been here longer than six months.
If they were solving the workforce shortage, we’d see some evidence of it by now.
The reality is that Maine’s generous welfare system actually creates a perverse incentive for asylum seekers not to work even if they want to and have found viable employment.
In Sanford, for example, hundreds of migrants have been living in housing subsidized by taxpayers. Although some are starting to get jobs at the county jail or various warehouses, they’re discovering that getting a paycheck makes them ineligible for welfare and subsidized housing.
Without taxpayer-funded assistance, they can’t afford to pay rent for the housing their currently occupying.
According to MaineHousing data, the Housing Affordability Index for York County in 2023 was 0.47 — lower than anytime since 2000 — meaning 86.5 percent of households cannot afford a home. The same trends apply to rental units. In 2023, the rental vacancy rate for all of Maine was just 2.9 percent — lower than any year since 1986.
Put simply, migrants who do take jobs will quickly find themselves unable find or afford housing, or keep up with the growing cost of living. You don’t need to be a genius to understand how these perverse incentives will discourage work and encourage long-term welfare dependency.
When it comes to housing for lifelong Mainers and taxpaying U.S. citizens, Pingree has no answers. That’s not her priority. She just wants more migrants flooding her district. The good news for her and her pro-open-borders donors is that illegal aliens are already flooding the country at record levels.
According to federal data, U.S. border agents encountered 1.9 million illegal alien border-crossers in 2021, 2.7 million in 2022, and 3.2 million in 2023. As of April, the number of illegal alien border encounters was already 1.9 million.
These numbers don’t include the illegal aliens who successfully evaded law enforcement as the entered the U.S. illegally.
Unfortunately for the millions of Americans who work and pay taxes, among those illegal aliens are thousands of individuals wanted for serious crimes in their home countries, individuals with ties to transnational criminal organizations, and even bonafide terrorists.
Just this week, eight Tajikistan nationals with ties to an Islamic terror group were arrested in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia after they entered the country illegally in San Diego.
Members of the brutal Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua are suspected of violent crimes against New York police officers as well as sex trafficking and sophisticated theft rings.
In Michigan, a gang of Chilean migrants have terrorized many of the state’s wealthiest neighborhoods via sophisticated burglaries.
Maine is not immune to the ill consequences of crime enabled by a lack of effective border security.
At the Maine-Canada border within the last year, border agents have encountered illegal aliens with suspected ties to transnational criminal organizations, including four Chinese nationals and 18 Romanian nationals.
Federal authorities have said that many of the Asian foreign nationals operating the sprawling web of illegal drug trafficking sites in Maine have entered the U.S. illegally or are exploiting the American asylum system.
Last year, a well-organized gang of Guatemalan illegal aliens came to Maine from Conn. and proceeded to rob Home Depot locations throughout the state before half of the crew was lugged in Rockland and subsequently deported.
The majority of the illegal aliens and economic migrants claiming to be legitimate asylum applicants are not seeking to prey on Americans through criminal schemes.
But the nonetheless threaten a different kind of calamity.
The mass migration into the U.S. is a totally overwhelming not only our welfare system, but also our court system.
Data tracked by Syracuse University pegs the immigration court asylum backlog for 2024 at 1.1 million cases — up from just 163,451 in 2016.
In Maine, any illegal alien who lodges an asylum claim can immediately obtain the full panoply of welfare benefits, resulting in stretched municipal budgets and higher taxes from Portland and South Portland to Sanford and Lewiston.
It’s no coincidence that the massive property tax increases coming to all of the large municipalities are being imposed as schools are increasingly forced to accommodate non-English speaking students who’ve endured the trauma of illegally entering the U.S.
Maine already has the 3rd highest tax burden of all the States, and if Pingree has her way, that burden will only increase, as working Mainers are forced to pay for her harebrained migrant resettlement scheme.
But she doesn’t have to worry about high taxes, housing affordability, or inflation. Because throughout her time in office, Pingree has amassed a fortune that will help insulate her from the disastrous consequences of the far left policies she supports.
In 2008, she disclosed a modest net worth of between $116,000 and $317,000.
According to her most recent disclosure, she’s now worth as much as $11.7 million.
Mainers would be much better off if she prioritized the economic well-being of her constituents rather than enriching herself.
Follow the money!!!!
How do you increase your net worth almost 100 fold in 16 years? Where does she get her income?????
We need to have her disclose the source of her income.
The illegals here in Maine are NOT seeking asylum. They are here for one reason only…
Maybe Pingree should be using her own money and MOT that of hard working Mainers!
IF we even make it to the time for her to be ousted, is there even a viable candidate yet to kick her to the gutter where she belongs? We need to be thinking AHEAD of these clowns and start raising someone to that challenge, now. Fungus Klingon included!!!
They don’t “desperately want to support themselves”. They’re here for the freebies, period. God I wish we could get rid of this woman.
We have an excellent candidate to defeat Pingree in Ron Russell. Spread the word and get everyone you know to vote for him and the other Republicans on the Nov. 5 ballot.
CAN WE JUST VOTE THIS FOSSILIZED BITCH OUT OF OFFICE?
Chellie, put YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS. All talk, and no action. Lead by example you ultra rich hypocrite. She’s mentally deranged.
Boat em all over to North Haven Island and let them live there with insular Chellie (former Minnesotan Rochelle Marie Johnson) and her daughter.
Good idea boxcar! Send the all out to her island!!!!
Maybe “The Islands” need a few thousand asylum seekers. You know, for the sake of diversity.
People need to wake up and send Chellie packing to her Minnesota roots! For too long, she has been working harder for herself and the anti-American “Washington squad” than for us.
Remember this in November, and vote for Maine’s home grown, Ron Russell, a man of the people!
He’s going to need lots of $$$ to fight Pingreed. DONATE!
Saco had 4 noon time shooters. Only 3 were cough. What does Pingree know about the 4th shooter? There are just too many questions OR Joe has lost control of all the ILLEGALS coming over the Boarder. Time to buy a gun.
Whay about the Biddeford driver with a NY licence and a a Biddeford address?
I will not vote for her!!!
Take a look at Ron Russell’s bio. He was West Point, Green Berret, looks to be wearing the ensignia of a Col on his shoulder, but was not a desk soldier.
Where does Pingree get off telling me what is good for Maine ?
Why doesn’t she go back to where she came from and leave us be ?
She’s just another goody two shoes virtue signaling hypocrite democrat who knows better than us about what’s good for Maine .
I pray daily that we ( the state ) has the common sense and wisdom to vote her out in November .
The democrats need to go .
Pingree bought her seat, same as King. She will never let the peasant voters oust her. She is too superior to allow that!
Send them all to her island off the coast
It’s called “public service”. Doing well by doing good. Just ask her.
The suburban women are the ultim
are
deciders. They are rather blase about destroying Me and America.
I detest them.Their husbands should know better.
They are not migrants…. Please get your headlines correct….. They are illegals!
Nothing is going to change unless we start demanding some obviously glaring issues in Maine. Y’all should go to Maine.gov & check out the voter registration rates in Cumberland & York counties for starters. Both are @ or OVER 100%. First step is demanding those rolls are cleaned up. Unfortunately, I don’t see any of our spineless GOP brethren calling for this.
Chellie Pinhead whines about the state being too white and too old? She should ask her multi-millionaire ex- husband,Donald Sussman, to buy her a mirror.
If you and your comrades enjoy oxygen, drop this nonsense
This quote: “ The majority of the illegal aliens and economic migrants claiming to be legitimate asylum applicants are not seeking to prey on Americans through criminal schemes.”
Coming here illegally, driving down the wages of the actual citizens, evading taxes and using up welfare benefits is preying on Americans and is a criminal scheme. WAKE UP. What benefit are you receiving from having any of these people here? How has it bettered your living condition? As more of these people come here, you will see more litter on the streets, more violent crime and more instances of social friction. One day you will look around and be surrounded by foreign faces, your ears will be inundated with foreign languages. You will be a foreigner in your own land. Ask yourself, “Was it worth it?”.
Maine people are all drug dealers and drug addicts.
I’d prefer that they be rounded up and removed, and replaced with ANY OTHER KIND OF PEOPLE who are not drug addicts/dealers and agree with the slogan, IF YOU SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING.
The narcotics crisis in Maine couldn’t have gotten as bad as it is without an equal number of people who saw nothing and said nothing. The removal of these people is perhaps if even greater priority than removing the addicts/dealers.