UPDATE: Thanks for stopping by, everyone. Keep up the good fight and don't let anyone scapegoat poor people for the sake of an election.
Be back next week.
Cross-posted on TurnMaineBlue
On Wednesday, Republican congressional candidate Dean Scontras sent a letter to me and my fellow Democratic Congressional candidates, asking us to join him in calling on Maine Governor Baldacci to rescind the April 2004 executive order that bars state employees from inquiring about people's immigration status.
Here's an excerpt:
"As I travel the campaign trail, illegal immigration is the issue at the forefront of most voters' minds. Mainers feel that the federal government has let them down on this issue by failing to secure our borders and pass comprehensive immigration reform during the last legislative session.
Even more discouraging is the fact that Governor Baldacci is exacerbating the problem by creating a sanctuary state for illegal aliens, allowing them to access social services at the expense of Maine's taxpayers.
...
I am asking you to join my call to Governor Baldacci to rescind his Executive Order. I think we can agree that Maine's status as a sanctuary state is a threat to our national security and an additional undue burden on Maine's taxpayers."
My letter in response, laying out my positions on immigration is below, but first I want to offer Dean some advice:
Dean, the most amazing statement in your letter is that "Illegal immigration is the issue at the forefront of most voters' minds." I am shocked. Shocked! How could I have been so out of touch with Maine people? Here I have been traveling this district for months and months, been welcomed into people’s homes, met many hundreds of them in relaxed settings where for hours they could speak their minds and hearts. And they did speak -- Maine voters are well known for speaking their minds. And I listened.
They talked about the war. They talked about their struggles to make ends meet- how hard it was to take care of their families, pay their mortgages and their prescription drug costs. They talked about saving money for their kid’s educations or for their retirement. They talked about the environment and global warming, and our country’s dependence on costly foreign oil.
But very few brought up "Illegal immigration."
In fact, with 140,000 people uninsured in our state, it would make sense that Maine people care a little more about universal health care coverage, than they do about the possibility of fewer than 2500 people in Maine working without documentation.
And I’ve been listening to the full spectrum of voters, at public forums, county fairs, at small businesses, at social service agencies and more. I have met thousands of people that way, and "illegal immigration" hardly ever comes up. How have I missed it? Or have I?
What I didn’t miss was today’s Maine Sunday Telegram. Did you see it? How about these facts:
"With the price of a gallon of home heating oil now at $3.18 a gallon, up 37 percent from a year ago, and kerosene prices up by 31 percent and propane by 26 percent, many low-income Mainers are flooding social service agencies with requests for help."
OR Dean, how about this one:
"...this year, home heating assistance calls [to the state’s emergency number] climbed to the top of the list, with 561 calls in November, compared with 89 such calls in November 2006."
So, what is my take on all of this?
"The issue at the forefront of most voter’s minds" Dean, isn’t a worry over immigration. It’s that Maine families are struggling to keep their heads above water and they expect and demand that their leaders in Congress will help. And that’s what I plan on doing.
So Dean, I have to conclude that you are using this issue as a wedge to tear Maine people apart all for the sake of publicity. But when you stir up trouble around immigration these days, you are treading on very dangerous ground. In town after town across the country anti immigrant politics have driven out legal immigrants, well established folks, restaurant owners, contractors, professionals and their families, as well as the minority who may be illegal. Everyone with ‘wrong’ name or skin color gets painted with the same brush when this kind of politics gets going.
Finally Dean, please accept a word of advice offered in all humility from a fellow candidate. Ours can be a very honorable profession; I try to practice politics that way. But it can also lead to some ugly stuff. So please be careful; your politics, however well-intentioned, can end up threatening the livelihoods and even the lives of hard-working Maine folks who have come here from other countries – Sudan, Ethiopia, Mexico, ..... – to try to live the American dream.
Here’s the letter I sent in response Dean’s letter to me:
Dear Dean Scontras,
We are a nation of immigrants. Your ancestors, like mine, were immigrants. I am proud to live in a nation that still shines as a beacon of hope and opportunity for millions of people worldwide. People are literally dying to come here, and our powerful tradition of immigration is not something to scorn or fear, but to honor and celebrate.
The Republican Party’s frenzy over immigration seeks to divide our nation, not bring it together. Instead of engaging in demagoguery for short-term political gain, you should look at the facts:
- According to the latest census, illegal immigrants make up less than 0.002% of Maine’s population. Most of them work hard, are law abiding, raise families and pay taxes.
- The Legislature’s Task Force on Homeland Security, of which I was the co-chair, held over a dozen hearings across the state over the last two years. Not once did any official or individual come before us to complain that federal or state immigration laws pose a threat to our security.
- Maine’s economy is highly reliant on migrant and immigrant labor – Canadian woods workers, Hispanic blueberry rakers, Asian workers at fish processing plants, etc.
- Many seasonal businesses complain that the federal quota for immigrant and migrant workers (H1-B visas) needs to increase because they can’t find enough workers to fill available jobs.
That said, there is much we can do to reform our current immigration laws and protect our borders. We can crack down on employers who knowingly hire and exploit undocumented immigrants. We can establish a more reasonable path toward legal citizenship for the many illegal immigrants who are here so they learn English, stop living in fear of being deported and get on the path to becoming US citizens.
But all of these reforms must be aimed at inclusion, rather than exclusion. They must be aimed at giving people an opportunity to share in the American Dream. They must be aimed at tearing down walls and barriers to citizenship, while keeping our nation secure from real threats. They must reinforce our tradition of hard work and sacrifice as the way to secure a better future for our family and ourselves.
So here’s my call for leadership: take a more responsible and rational position on immigration than the one being dictated by your Washington, DC consultants. Fire your pollster. Stop watching Fox News and Bill O’Reilly and instead follow what a member of your own party, Abraham Lincoln, called "the better angels of our nature." Work toward bringing our nation and our state together, in all its diversity, instead of driving us apart. And if your real aim is to decrease Maine’s reliance on immigrant and migrant workers, here’s something else you can do: support my bill to increase Maine’s minimum wage, which will give Maine’s working poor a better shot at earning a livable wage.
If you reject the knee-jerk, divisive politics that are dragging this nation and your party down, believe me, your supporters will follow. Because they, like all of us, want to live in a state of hope, not fear.
Sincerely,
Ethan Strimling
PS: If you’d like to meet some immigrants who are working hard to support their families, come on over any time to Portland West.
We need serious people willing to debate the tough issues in Washington. There’s too much hot air there already.
I’ll be sticking around in the comments section for a bit, and I look forward to hearing what you think the real issues facing this country are.
- Ethan Strimling, Candidate for Congress, ME-01
http://ethan08.com
http://www.actblue.com/...