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Portland Bucks State Rules, Continues Granting General Assistance to Asylum Seekers

The city of Portland plans to continue providing General Assistance to people deemed not eligible under new state rules, but won’t seek state reimbursement for the aid.

Portland Mayor Ethan Strimling says this includes funding to help immigrants who are here legally and seeking asylum but who can’t work because their applications are still being processed or because they’re getting their paperwork together.

At the same time, the Portland City Council is to vote Monday night to align the city’s General Assistance program with state rules.

“We’re amending our ordinance just to make sure that for all the other people that we help, we will get reimbursement from the state to be able to make sure that we don’t put all of that burden on the local taxpayer,” Strimling says.

He says there are just under 100 individuals in Portland who, under law, are not allowed to work as they wait for their asylee status to be determined.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.