Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is raising concerns about reports that attorneys have been prohibited from accompanying their clients during routine check-ins at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in Maine. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem, Pingree stressed that preventing legal counsel from attending such visits… Read more »
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is calling for full transparency and accountability after a Maine parent was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during student drop-off last week in Portland. In a scathing letter to ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, Pingree condemned the actions by ICE officers on school grounds and raised serious concerns over the… Read more »
Maine First District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree’s bipartisan effort to safeguard H-2B visas was unanimously approved in the Homeland Security Appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2026. During today’s full Appropriations Committee markup of the bill, Pingree urged her colleagues to support her amendment, which she introduced with Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (R-Md.), explaining how… Read more »
Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) led 46 Members of Congress in demanding answers from U.S. Department of State Secretary Marco Rubio on the ongoing grant disbursement freeze of educational and cultural exchange programs. The letter to Secretary Rubio follows the State Department’s temporary pause on program payments with no advanced… Read more »
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Senator Angus King, and Governor Janet Mills are leading a push to codify the temporary rule granting a 540-day automatic extension to expiring work authorizations for immigrants and asylum seekers. This comes as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) continues to work through an extensive backlog in work permit processing, putting… Read more »
Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) welcomed news from the Biden-Harris Administration that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Labor (DOL) will double the number of available H-2B temporary nonagricultural worker visas available for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 to nearly 131,000. The additional 64,716 H-2B visas that will be available is on top of… Read more »
Maine First District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree today welcomed news that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), is allocating $5.4 million through the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) for Maine. This funding, announced today as part of a $380 million nationwide allocation, will… Read more »
Senior House Appropriator Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today led a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal Year 2025 Homeland Security Appropriations bill to increase the cap on seasonal labor visas, or H-2B visas. The amendment, co-led by Pingree alongside Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), comes as Maine enters its busy tourism season and continues to face a worker shortage.… Read more »
Read my op-ed in the Portland Press Herald
What do Manhattan and Maine have in common?
Most would say not too much. Typically, they would be right.
Yet the Big Apple and the Pine Tree State face a pair of common challenges today: historically tight labor markets and an influx of people desperately seeking asylum.
Like other cities and states coming out of the pandemic, Maine is… Read more »
Tonight, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) accepted the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project’s (ILAP) 2023 Policy Leader award in recognition of her work and leadership in Congress to speed up asylum seeker work authorizations. Pingree accepted the award at an event in Portland on Wednesday night, where she dedicated the award to her Portland-based constituent services team.
“I’m… Read more »
