XPost: misc.immigration.usa, me.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh
XPost: talk.politics.guns

In article <pVCuL.57315$Ldj8.22607@fx47.iad>
fudgepacker <patriot1@protonmail.com> wrote:

Democrat hate America. That's the simple truth.

Social media users have reacted angrily to revelations that a
town in Democrat-run Maine is lavishing millions of dollars on
luxury apartments for asylum seekers, even as many US-born
residents sleep rough.

Immigrants this week started moving in to 24 one- and two-
bedroom apartments in an attractive, recently-finished three-
story clapboard block on the edge of the leafy coastal town of
Brunswick, about 30 miles north of Portland.

State officials said they were welcoming in hard-up newcomers,
and one of the migrants to win a home said it was a 'palace'
compared to the shelters and hotels she had been sleeping in.

But commentators quickly slammed the decision to spend a
reported $3.5 million on 60 migrant families, when so many
others struggle to pay rents or have to sleep rough in one of
America's chilliest states.

Central Maine is set to see snowfall, rain, and temperatures in
the 20s in the coming days, as officials tear down the
encampments of homeless people in and around Portland.

'What a slap in the face of all Maine residents, and all
American citizens in fact, especially the homeless,' one posted
on X/Twitter.

Another noted how Maine residents' 'taxes are now being used to
pay the rent for illegal aliens.'

Others complained that migrants were being 'put ahead of
citizens' by getting as much as two-year stints living for free
in a 'nice new building.'

Others still suggested that Maine residents should 'quit paying
taxes' or voting for the Democratic politicians who greenlighted
the scheme.

Maine has seen a surge in its number of homeless residents since
2021 and currently has more than 4,000 unhoused people, mostly
in and around Portland.

A little over 3,000 of them sleep in shelters.

Residents also pay some of the highest taxes in America. Maine
has the costliest property levies in the nation, and only
residents of New York and Hawaii pay more tax on the dollar
overall, according to WalletHub.

State officials greenlighted the project amid a surge in
migrants crossing the US-Mexico border and making claims for
asylum.

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/12/16/79914459-12953637- image-a-34_1705075541598.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/12/16/79914083-12953637- image-a-33_1705075541579.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/12/16/79914421-12953637- image-a-36_1705075541665.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/12/16/79937031-12953637- Social_media_users_reacted_angrily_to_the_revelations_about_Main- a-32_1705075541575.jpg

Migrants started being housed in the first 24 apartments this
week, and dozens more units are expected to be completed in the
coming weeks.

Competition for the apartments was fierce, and the application
list was capped at 250.

Esther, an asylum seeker from Nigeria who was awarded a home,
said it felt like a 'palace' compared to her previous digs.

'In [a] hotel, there are rules and regulations,' Esther told
local reporters.

'In a shelter, too, we have so many people. We share the kitchen
together. We share the restroom together.'

Maine State Housing Authority budgeted nearly $3.5 million to
cover the rents of 60 migrant families in five buildings in
Brunswick for two years.

They are expected to eventually get permission to work and start
earning to pay their own way.

The state is also allocating $100,000 to help dozens of
Brunswick migrants process their asylum applications and secure
work permits.

A bus service is in the works to help the migrants get into town.

America's southern border has seen ever greater numbers of
migrants cross the frontier and ask for asylum since Biden took
office in January 2021.

There were more than 10,000 arrests for illegal crossing per day
over several days in December alone.

The trend is fueled by ever more people fleeing political chaos
in Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.

Though many traverse the frontier at an irregular spot, asylum
claims are a legal process.

Many are allowed into the country for a years-long wait as
officials assess claims that they had suffered serious human
rights violations elsewhere.

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01/12/16/79755315-12953637- Fully_93_percent_of_Americans_say_the_southern_border_is_either_- a-39_1705075541764.jpg

In cities including Chicago, New York and Denver, migrants who
have no access to work permits sleep in police station foyers
and in airports.

Though they can be unpopular in some quarters, studies have
shown that asylum seekers and migrants are more entrepreneurial
and hardworking than US-born populations.

These scenes dominate the early phase of the 2024 presidential
campaign, with Republicans slamming President Joe Biden and
weighing whether to impeach his Homeland Security secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas.

Republicans want Biden to back more restrictive policies that
would dramatically reduce asylum protections, among other
things, and they believe they have leverage if the president
wants them to authorize tens of billions in aid to Ukraine.

Americans are increasingly alarmed by people flows across the US-
Mexico border, with record numbers now saying the influx of
asylum seekers is a 'crisis' or a major problem, a new poll
shows.

A recent CBS News survey found that a staggering 93 percent of
respondents said the frontier was in a 'crisis' or that border
guards faced a 'very serious' or 'somewhat serious' issue of
undocumented arrivals.

Only 7 percent of the 2,157 people surveyed said it was 'not
much of a problem.'

The share of Americans who call it a crisis has shot up from 38
percent last May to 45 percent currently.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12953637/Outrage- Democrat-run-Maine-towns-luxury-digs-migrants-Asylum-seekers- live-rent-free-palace-apartments-balconies-hundreds-born- homeless-sleep-rough.html?ico=related-replace

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