Executive
Waste of the Day: Maine Spends $3.5 Million on Free Housing for Illegal Immigrants
Maine is building apartment complexes for illegal immigrants for $3.5 million, and the immigrants will live rent-free for two years.
Topline: Maine is spending $3.5 million to build apartments for illegal immigrants, where 60 families will live rent-free for two years.
Key facts: Five entirely new buildings are being constructed to house the immigrant families in Brunswick, Maine, 30 minutes north of Portland, the state’s largest city.
The apartments will be ready by February.
The state is spending another $100,000 to help immigrants fill out the paperwork for their work permits and asylum applications.
The fund was also used last year to cover two years of rent payments for 52 apartments housing asylum seekers in South Portland.
Background: The construction funding came out of the state Emergency Housing Relief Fund, whose budget has increased to $55 million from just $22 million in April 2022.
The Maine State Housing Authority manages the fund. The department spent $5 million on payroll in 2022, with six employees taking home salaries between $100,000 and $150,000, according to OpenTheBooks.com.
Maine has seen a surge of illegal immigration over the past year. Arrests at the Canadian border have nearly tripled, and the state’s refugee and asylum seeker population is expected to double.
Gov. Janet Mills plans to establish an Office of New Americans, a new state department focused on helping immigrants integrate into the workforce. There is no price tag attached to the plan yet, but similar offices in other states have cost tens of millions of dollars annually.
Critical quote: U.S. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) is a staunch critic of Biden’s immigration policies and their impact on Maine.
“Most of us understand that nations need borders, those borders should be secured, and we should enforce the immigration laws on the books,” Golden recently said.
“Illegal immigration threatens our national security and undermines American jobs. It’s time for Congress and the Biden administration to come together and pass legislation to meaningfully address issues at the border. It should be a top priority in Washington, just like it is in most of America.”
Summary: As immigration to Maine increases, taxpayers have been funding more and more temporary solutions, such as the free housing being built in Brunswick.
The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com
This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) is the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
The group's aggressive transparency and forensic auditing of government spending has led to the assembly of grand juries, indictments, and successful prosecutions; congressional briefings, hearings, and subpoenas; Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits; Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports; federal legislation; and much more.
Our Honorary Chairman - In Memoriam is U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, MD.
Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.
Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.
Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.
In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.
Andrzejewski lives in Hinsdale, Illinois with his wife Kerry and three daughters. He is a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and has finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).
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