FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ruben Torres, Advocacy and Policy Manager, rtorres@maineimmigrantrights.org
PORTLAND, MAINE – Over the past several weeks, the country has witnessed increasingly hostile rhetoric from the Executive Office, including repeated verbal attacks on Somali, Afghan, and other immigrant communities, culminating in the December 2, 2025, announcement of a halt on immigration applications, including green-card and citizenship processing from nineteen non-white and Muslim-majority nations. These actions, paired with the dehumanizing language accompanying them, strike at the heart of who we are as a nation and do so without offering any evidence that such sweeping restrictions improve national security or economic stability.
The Office of the President carries the constitutional responsibility to represent all Americans, regardless of race, religion, language, or country of origin. When that office chooses instead to target communities of color with broad, unsubstantiated accusations, it erodes public trust, undermines national unity, and causes real, measurable harm. Leadership from the highest office should foster safety, belonging, stability; not fear, division, and suspicion toward one’s own neighbors.
The new suspension of immigration and naturalization processing severely disrupts Maine families pursuing citizenship and places them in indefinite limbo. For immigrants in Maine, including Somalis and Afghans, the consequences are immediate and devastating. Families on a lawful path face indefinite delays, leaving children who grew up here with uncertain futures. Communities built through years of labor now feel vilified and unwelcome.
“When we hear such language from the highest office in the nation, we run the risk of normalizing language that goes against our fundamental values as a country. We are your neighbors, your coworkers, your classmates, your customers, your friends. All families in Maine deserve safety, dignity, and the assurance that national leaders will not target them because of who they are or where they come from,” Said MIRC Executive Director Mufalo Chitam
We, the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, believe in America’s promise that our identity is shaped not by where we came from, but by what we stand for: hard work, solidarity, generosity, and the courage to build better lives for ourselves and our children. That promise is undermined when the government singles out whole populations based on their nationality or race, labels them as dangerous, and denies them the same rights and dignity afforded to others.
We call on our fellow Americans and elected officials, in Washington and in Maine, to honor principles enshrined in our laws and in our national identity: equality under the law, due process, and the right to seek refuge from persecution.
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