What to Know About Maine’s “Office of New Americans”

The following article was prepared by the Maine Issues & Action PAC, a political advocacy committee formed by Rep. Mike Soboleski (R-Phillips). The opinions expressed below are those of the author.

The Office of New Americans State Network is a project of the Washington, D.C.-based American Immigration Council and the New York City-based World Education Services. Both parent organizations are 501(c)(3) nonprofits that work with the ONA State Network to develop ONAs in states across the country.

The Maine Office of New Americans states its goals are in alignment with Governor Janet Mills’ 10-year economic plan to bring 75,000 new people to Maine. 75,000 ‘New Mainers’ is closer to 300,000 people if you account for a spouse and an average of 2 children for each person being recruited to Maine by Gov. Mills and her administration. Maine’s population in the 2020 Census was 1,362,359 people.

Maine does not have the infrastructure or tax revenue to support this mandate from the Mills administration of an increase of almost 25 percent of existing 2020 population numbers. Ultimately, these increased costs will largely fall on municipalities for required General Assistance, school and utility costs. Healthcare costs will also increase for both public healthcare and private costs to offset demand for services. Moving this many people to Maine will also impact housing availability and opens the door through LD 2003 to municipalities being forced to adhere to Department of Housing and Urban Development density requirements for low-income housing.  

All of this drastic change and there was no bill to create a Maine Office of New Americans that received a vote by the House and Senate. No bill to do any of this made its way through the full legislative process with a public hearing, committee vote, House debate, Senate debate, House vote, Senate vote and required concurrence of those votes in both legislative chambers.

So how did we get here?

On Wednesday, August 2^nd, 2023, Mills signed an Executive Order tasking the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation, and the Future (GOPIF) to participate in the Office of New Americans State Network. In addition to participation, the GOPIF was ordered to develop a plan to establish a new state office for immigration and immigrant resettlement. Hannah Pingree, who is a former Democratic Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, is in charge of GOPIF. She is also the daughter of Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree.  

The GOPIF plan to develop a Maine Office of New Americans was to be delivered to Mills by January 19, 2024. The plan was delivered on time and was paired with a legislative bill titled LD 2167 ‘An Act to Develop Maine’s Economy and Strengthen Its Workforce by Establishing an Office of New Americans’ from Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland). LD 2167 was referenced to the Committee on State and Local Government to have a public hearing and committee vote before advancing to the full House and Senate floor for debate and subsequent vote.

LD 2167 would have established the Office of New Americans within the confines of the Executive Branch and kept it in the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation and the Future. It also would have established an advisory council of nineteen people, ten of which must be immigrants. The Governor and elected Democrat legislative leadership would appoint the council members. In the bill, there was no provision for confirmation by a larger elected body of these council members. The newly established Maine Office of New Americans also granted itself rule-making authority.

LD 2167 received a contentious public hearing and partisan committee vote.  However, the bill itself never left the State and Local Government Committee, which is odd for such a big bill with passionate voices both for and against it. The bill to create the Maine Office of New Americans never followed the required legislative process of debate in both chambers followed by a vote. Both chambers must agree to pass the exact same bill for it to be in concurrence and advance to the Governor’s desk to become law. This did not happen with the Maine Office of New Americans.

Instead, the Maine Office of New Americans was created as part of a 246 page Amendment to Maine’s most recent supplemental budget LD 2214. LD 2167, the bill to create the ONA properly, was stuck in the State and Local Government Committee where it should have died upon adjournment of the legislature. Instead, the bill was cut and pasted into the state supplemental budget to sneak it through the legislative process with willful disregard for transparency, advocacy, and debate.

This full legislative process requirement was even stated in the actual GOPIF plan to establish the new Maine Office of New Americans:

“E: Timeline of Next Steps – Maine’s ONA should be established in statute during the legislative session during the 2024 with accompanying staffing proposed in the supplemental budget. If the Legislature agrees and the establishment of the office is approved, the staff and advisory council should be able to start their work in late 2024.”

The Mills administration, as well as Democratic legislative leadership, ignored this directive stated in the plan to implement the ONA with legislative approval. Instead, LD 2214, the supplemental budget, was used as a Trojan Horse to manufacture a vote in both chambers to establish the Maine Office of New Americans.

The vote to pass the supplemental budget was entirely partisan. All Democrats in attendance in the House voted for it, and all Republicans voted against it. In the Senate, it was again a total party-line split, except for progressive Sen. Nicole Grohoski (D-Hancock) voting against, which can be explained as a protest vote against Mills not spending even more money on the progressive wish list.

Currently, the Maine Office of New Americans exists within the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation and the Future under the control of Hannah Pingree. ONA has had taxpayer money appropriated to hire a Public Services Coordinator, Public Services Executive, and there is currently an active job listing for the position of “Director” — though this is likely a formality as the new office’s leadership has probably already been chosen behind closed doors.

The 132^nd Legislature convenes in January and it is expected that expansion and permanent funding of the Office of New Americans will be on the legislative docket. There is also a chance that the 131^st Legislature is called into a Special Session after election day on November 5^th and before January to secure funding and expansion of ONA with the current Democratic legislative majorities in both chambers.

MiaPAC will be monitoring this situation for any changes and will let the public know.

Maine Issues & Action PAC Summary Brief:

Issue:

• Maine now has an Office of New Americans in the Governor’s Office of Policy, Innovation and the Future dedicated to bringing 75,000 people (with families this is probably closer to 300,000 new Americans) to Maine to work. Maine does not have the jobs, housing, tax revenue or infrastructure on the state and local level to support this new mandate.

• Maine’s Office of New Americans was created in the supplemental budget (LD 2214). It creates a new bureaucracy. The legislation to create it (LD2167) never left the State and Local Government Committee to receive a full debate and vote in the House and Senate. LD 2167 was simply cut and pasted into 2214 which was the supplemental budget.

• Maine citizens were denied their representation by having a direct vote on the bill where they could contact their Representative and Senator to influence their vote. This did not follow the required legislative process and may be illegal. This is a clear example of taxation without representation.

• There is chance that a Special Legislative Session may be called after the November 5th election and before the 132nd legislature is sworn in January. This special session may be used to iron out the illegalities of how ONA came into being as well as increase funding for it to make it a permanent piece of Maine’s government bureaucracy.

Action:

• Municipalities can draft local ordinances to bar the Mills administration from resettling asylum seekers, refugees, migrants, and illegal aliens into their jurisdictions. Select Boards can contact their lawyers and have these ordinances drawn up citing the need to protect their taxpayers, municipal budgets, schools, healthcare infrastructure and police departments. Once ordinances are drafted the templates may be shared amongst municipalities. This is not legal advice, but an example of what municipalities could do if so inclined.
• In the ONA Plan, on page 26, many business, NGO’s and lobbying groups are listed as supporters of the ONA. Maine citizens can contact the businesses and organizations listed as supporting ONA and tell them that they will be boycotting their businesses.
• The 132nd Legislature can zero fund the Office of New Americans in the next state budget.
• Ask your candidates for the House and Senate in the Maine state legislature if they support the Office of New Americans. Vote accordingly. You can let legislative candidates know that you do not consent to creating the Maine Office of New Americans by Executive fiat!