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Immigration

VIDEO: In Homeland Security Appropriations Markup, Pingree Leads Push for Increased H-2B Visas

| Posted in Press Releases

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.…

Let asylum seekers work

| Posted in Blog Posts

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…

Pingree Recognized for Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Efforts, Accepts ILAP’s Policy Leader Award

| Posted in Press Releases

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…

Pingree Statement on Mayorkas Impeachment

| Posted in Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) released the following statement after House Republicans voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas: “House Republicans have done absolutely nothing this Congress to reform our immigration system. In fact, House Republican leadership won’t even allow us to vote on a historic immigration bill that Republicans…

King, Collins, Pingree Request Additional Flexibility for Funding to Support Migrants

| Posted in Press Releases

U.S. Senators Angus King and Susan Collins, and U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree, are requesting that if Congress provides additional funding for the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), that the 45-day limitation on that aid be increased to 180 days. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas, the Maine Delegation is requesting an extension of the…

VIDEO: As Republicans Push Shortsighted Border Bill, Pingree Champions Bipartisan Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act

| Posted in Press Releases
CP asylum remarks

Maine First District Congresswoman Chellie Pingree on Wednesday fought back against a punitive, shortsighted Republican bill, H.R. 5283, that would prohibit federal funding for shelters to house migrants on land controlled by Federal Land Management agencies. It would also void a lease between the Federal government and NYC to authorize the use of Floyd Bennett…

Pingree Announces More Than $1 Million to Support Immigrant Services in Maine

| Posted in Press Releases
Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today announced two federal grants totaling more than $1,000,000 for the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center (GPIWC). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement awarded GPIWC $776,000 over three years to support existing GPIWC programs, help coordinate ongoing work with other service providers,…

Pingree to Biden Admin: FEMA Shelter and Services Program Should Support Asylum Seekers Nationwide, ‘Not Just Those Along the Southern Border’

| Posted in Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is calling on the Biden Administration to reform the burdensome requirements preventing cities and organizations like those in Maine from accessing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) Shelter and Services Program (SSP) funding. In a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and FEMA…

Following Pingree Push, Biden. Admin Extends, Redesignates Protections for South Sudanese Amid Ongoing Humanitarian Crisis

| Posted in Press Releases
homeland security flag

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is praising the Biden Administration for extending and redesignating South Sudan for Temporary Protection Status (TPS) through May 3, 2025, safeguarding the lives of both current TPS holders and South Sudanese who have arrived in the United States since the last redesignation in 2022. The news comes just days…

Pingree Renews Calls for Biden Admin. to Extend Protections for South Sudanese Amid Continued Humanitarian Crises

| Posted in Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) led a group of 19 Members of Congress in urging President Joe Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to extend and redesignate South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), safeguarding the lives of both current TPS holders and South Sudanese who have arrived in the United States since the last…

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