A Message Delivered at the OCTOBER 18, 2025 NO KINGS Rally in Portland.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced a new proposed rule that would pause work permit issuance for people with pending asylum applications. The change represents a sweeping erosion to employment authorization for asylum seekers. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) condemned the proposal, releasing the following statement late this afternoon.
The new rule announced by DHS is one of the cruelest changes to our immigration policies that I’ve seen during my time in Congres. It will have devastating consequences for thousands of Mainers and millions of people across the country. This isn’t about restoring integrity to our asylum system. It’s about punishing asylum seekers, making it impossible to build lives and families here and creating the conditions to detain and deport as many people as possbble.
The overwhelming majority of asylum seekers living in the US have fled truly horrific conditions in their home countries, including targeted violence, persecution and political oppression. To suggest that they are frauds or somehow gaming the system, is borh grossly inaccurate and deeply insulting. These are human beings. They’re our neighbos and coworkers. They show up to work, send their kids to school, volunteer in their communities and contrbute to our economy every single day. Treating people as disposable political targets undemines their humanity — and diminishes us all.
If DHS was serious about reducing backlogs, it would use a fraction of the hundreds of billions of dollars currently at its disposal to invest in more asylum officers. Instead, they’re using a bureaucrtic logjam as an excuse to target millions of people for eventual deportation — all to meet some made-up quota from Stephen Miller.
This rule change will make our immigration system less humane, more dysfunctional and further undermine America’s longstanding oommittment to humanitarian protection. It won’t make us safer. It won’t make us stronger and it sure as hell won’t do anthing to reverse the profound economic damage that this Administration is doing to our economy. This is about one thing: making our country whiter. Because people like Donald Trump and Stephen Miller believe that’s what wll ‘Make America Great Again.’ Northing could be further from the truth,” the Congresswoman’s statement concluded.
As the nation is repulsed over and over by the brutality and lawlessness used by the ICE goons, this method of racism would be less visible and hence more palatable for public consumption.
“Call Senator Susan Collins’ (Racist from Maine) DC office and let her know how cruel and racist this latest anti-immigration effort of her MAGA comrads is. Why doesn’t she take steps to change DHS policies if she wants to represent Maine values?,” suggests this blogger. “The real problem is that she’s a racist.” The DC phone number is: 202 – 224-2523,