A Republican-led bill introduced on Wednesday would allow Maine municipalities to place limitations on the state’s ability to resettle migrants into their communities.
[RELATED: Catholic Charities Maine Plans to Resettle 150 Refugees in 100-Mile Radius Around Bangor…]
The bill, LD 422, “An Act to Require the State to Obtain Municipal Approval Before Placing Noncitizens in the Municipality,” was sponsored by Republican Rep. Gregory Swallow of Houlton.
Under Swallow’s bill, the state would be prohibited from placing noncitizens within a municipality without that municipality’s prior approval, and would allow municipalities to put a limit on the number of noncitizens the state may relocate into the municipality.
“Currently, municipalities and residents in my district and other Aroostook communities are feeling the financial strains of ever increasing public education costs, and heightened costs of housing in both rentals and purchases,” Rep. Swallow said.
“Furthermore, our communities have an elderly demographic that is struggling financially under limited resources and static incomes,” Swallow added. “Coupled with these burdens, the state continues to add further weight onto our taxpayers.”
“This bill is not so much an immigration bill — as some have termed it — as it primarily seeks to address both local control and cost to local taxpayers,” he said. “It’s important that decisions that effect local jurisdictions remain with that populace.”
Swallow said that the term “noncitizen” as used in his bill would encompass asylum-seeking migrants and all noncitizens to potentially include Green Card holders, not just illegal immigrants. That said, Swallow clarified that the bill would not effect migrant farmworkers or other noncitizens visiting the state, and would only apply to instances where the state is seeking to resettle noncitizens in a given municipality.
Former State Representative and longtime East Machias Selectman Ken “Bucket” Davis testified in support of Swallow’s bill, saying that he is a “firm believer in local control” and that the state asking small towns to “pick up the bill” for noncitizens is wrong.
“Each of our towns should be able to say ‘no thanks,’ since it affects our schools, public works, fire protection, and any other services that we are able to provide,” Davis said. “With so many older people struggling to stay in their homes and fighting to survive, this bill seems like a no-brainer.”
Michael Kebede, policy counsel for the Maine ACLU, was the only person present on Wednesday to testify in opposition to LD 422.
[RELATED: Maine ACLU Vows to Resist ‘repression and totalitarianism’ of Second Trump Administration…]
Kebede argued that the bill could run afoul of the federal refugee resettlement program, comparing the bill to a 2019 executive order issued by President Donald Trump in his first term that required refugees only be resettled in jurisdictions where both state and local governments have given their consent. That executive order was later halted by a federal court.
Maine has three state-approved agencies that handle refugee resettlement: Catholic Charities Maine, Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services, and the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine.
[RELATED: Maine Resettlement Agencies Set to Double Number of Refugees Taken in for FY24: Maine Public…]
At a townhall event in Portland in September of last year, Kebede likened immigration enforcement by ICE to Nazis in 1930s Germany, and said the Maine ACLU would be urging the Maine Legislature to pass laws protecting illegal immigrants from deportation.
At the same Portland event, Kebede described supporters of deporting illegal immigrants as “vile political communities” and “the forces of neo-fascism.”
Before the close of the public hearing, Committee Co-Chair Rep. Suzanne Salisbury (D-Westbrook) suggested that a representative from the state’s recently formed Office of New Americans (ONA) should be present at the bill’s work session.
Gov. Janet Mills recently announced over a dozen appointees for the 24-member Office of New Americans Advisory Council, which the Mills administration created by executive order eighteen months ago as part of the governor’s plan to bring 75,000 new workers to the state by 2029.
[RELATED: Mills Admin, Nonprofits, and Big Biz Back New Migrant Resettlement Agency for Maine…]
Although a standalone bill to create the ONA sponsored by Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland) failed to pass during the last legislative session, the office received funding after Democratic lawmakers attached just over $300,000 to fund the creation of the ONA to the budget, which was passed on a party line vote.
Mills appointed Tarlan Ahmadov, himself an immigrant to Maine from Azerbaijan and the former refugee resettlement coordinator for Catholic Charities Maine, as the director of the ONA.
Ahmadov has faced calls for his resignation from Maine’s Armenian and migrant communities after The Maine Wire revealed his history of making anti-Armenian comments on social media.
Last summer, Ahmadov brought several Maine lawmakers, including Rep. Deqa Dhalac, sponsor of the bill to create the ONA, State Sen. Jill Duson (D-Cumberland) and Rep. Mana Abdi (D-Lewiston) on a tour of territory Azerbaijan had militarily seized in a recent conflict.
According to Rep. Dhalac’s 2024 personal financial disclosure with the Maine Ethics Commission, the trip to Azerbaijan was a “cultural exchange trip” paid for as a gift by the “fund to support Azerbaijan diaspora.”
Sen. Duson also disclosed the trip as a gift, but describes the payor as “Fund for Support Azerbaijani Diaspora.”
Ekhlas Ahmed, who was appointed by Gov. Mills as a policy analyst in the ONA under Ahmadov, was also present on the May 2024 trip to Azerbaijan. Ahmed has made public comments advocating against the assimilation of immigrants and vowing to “fight for Sudan” with all her capacities.
Maine voters will remember all of this on Election Day 2026 .
Maine will give us Republican solution to all of this insanity .
The days of listening to people like Kebede and Dhalac are almost over .
SAVE MAINE Vote Republican in 26
This whole thing is all about more votes for the democRAT party, they will pack illegals into areas where they need more democRAT votes and dominate the State for decades. It’s as plain as the nose on your face !! Vote em out while you still have the chance.
Two things. Whenever anyone defaults to the nazi label, you should automatically realize they have no defense and are relying on the shock effect of name calling, they have no game. And.. I remember when aclu defended americans, you know like it states in their name. Non-citizens are not americans. Perhaps a better name would be AASS, anti american soros stooges
Same goes for the phrase “game changer” When I hear someone say that I automatically tune out.
Where is ICE? Pull these weeds out by the roots.
No law designed to benefit any individual, any group, any individual business, any non-Maine citizen, or any other legal entity is constitutional. Every law must benefit the entirety of the people of Maine and not be limited to just one readily identifiable group to the exclusion of the rest. Passing laws to benefit non-citizens instead of the Maine people is blatantly unconstitutional.
Maine Constitution Article IV. Part Third. § 1 The Legislature, with the exceptions hereinafter stated, shall have full power to make and establish all reasonable laws and regulations for the defense and benefit of the people of this State, not repugnant to this Constitution, nor to that of the United States.
Maine Constitution Article IV. Part Third. § 1
Ace Tire Co., Inc. v. Municipal Officers of Waterville, 302 A. 2d 90 – Me: Supreme Judicial Court 1973
Under Article IV, Part Third, Section 1, of the Constitution of Maine…This power reserved to the people, to be exercised by their representatives in the legislative branch of government, is known as the police power. It embraces the power of the State to preserve and promote the public good and it is concerned with whatever affects the peace, security, health, morals and general welfare of the community. It defies definitional specifics as it is comprehensive and all embracing in concept and its operational scope must envision a constant expansion and ever ready elasticity to meet the new and increasing demands for its exercise for the benefit of society. Ace Tire Co., Inc. v. Municipal Officers of Waterville, 302 A. 2d 90 – Me: Supreme Judicial Court 1973
OPINION OF THE JUSTICES, 131 A. 2d 904 – Me: Supreme Judicial Court 1957
The test of public use is not the advantage or great benefit to the public. “A public use must be for the general public, or some portion of it, who may have occasion to use it, not a use by or for particular individuals. It is not necessary that all of the public shall have occasion to use. It is necessary that every one, if he has occasion, shall have the right to use.” Paine v. Savage, 126 Me. 121, 126, 136 A. 664, 666, 51 A.L.R. 1194. The Act in violation of these principles seeks to have the city do for private enterprise what private enterprise cannot be authorized to do for itself. OPINION OF THE JUSTICES, 131 A. 2d 904 – Me: Supreme Judicial Court 1957
Comments 101. “More than one paragraph will lose 99% of readers” just saying..
Just resettle them in their home countries, problem solved.
The Catholic charities remain and other such people.I just raken in the big bucksThey don’t really care about anything except the money
The NGO’S in Maine won’t help “White Afrikaners” who have been given refugee status only black and brown refugees. Go ahead and check it out. Don’t think the replacement theory is real. Interview the Jewish and Catholic NGO’s about it.