Press Releases

Congresswoman Chellie Pingree released the following statement on President Trump’s plans to build a wall with Mexico and change domestic immigration programs, as well as his expected announcement tomorrow on curtailing immigration from Muslim-majority nations.
 
President Trump should know that history looks back fondly on people who tear down walls, not those who build them.  What he has proposed to isolate the United States from the rest of the world is frightening. 
 
His plans to spend billions of taxpayer dollars building a wall with Mexico, end immigration policies that have taken undocumented immigrants out of the shadows, and turn our back on the worst refugee crisis since WWII will not make the country safer.  Instead, they will create needless suffering, waste money, weaken relationships with our allies, and tarnish our country’s proud legacy as a refuge of freedom and safety in the world.
 
In particular, my thoughts today are with refugees who have made Maine their home—many of them Muslims from the part of the world that President Trump wants to cut off.  They fled oppression and danger in their home countries—enduring a lengthy, thorough vetting process—for the safety of the United States.  They’ve enriched our communities in many ways, raising families, starting businesses, and filling key needs in our labor force.  President Trump’s plans to deny others that same opportunity are un-American, shortsighted, and cruel. If this is just the start, today’s actions offer a deeply troubling vision of things to come.