A new coalition of immigrant-owned residential care agencies launched this week with the release of a report documenting contributions that immigrant-owned and operated residential care agencies are making across Maine.
Two other immigrant advocacy groups issued statements protesting Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decisions allowing new restrictions on immigrant protection and asylum rules.
Protected status
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, both in Portland, issued statements on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Thursday decisions that allow the federal government to end temporary protected status for Haitians and Syrians and allow the federal government to turn people away at the border before they can begin the asylum process.
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, representing over 100 organizations, said the decisions will put immigrant families, workers and communities at risk.
“These rulings are devastating,” said Mufalo Chitam, the coalition’s executive director. “They will be felt by families who followed the rules, registered with the government, passed background checks, paid fees, built lives here and became part of our communities. They will also be felt by the asylum seekers who are being told that the door to protection can be shut before they are even allowed to ask for safety.”
Sue Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said that the approximately 1.3 million people in the U.S. enrolled in the temporary protected status program include “at least hundreds of people in Maine. Many people have lived with TPS protection for years and decades, raising families, working essential jobs in our workforce, and becoming indispensable parts of our communities.”
Disability services advocate
The Maine Immigrant Business Coalition represents 30 residential care agencies founded and led by immigrants from Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Rwanda, Somalia and other African nations.
Its impact report, “Rooted in Care, Growing in Maine,” documents immigrant-owned and operated residential care agencies’ contributions.
“Too often public conversations about immigrant caregivers misses the work we do every day. This report is about making those contributions visible,” said Landry Kwizera, the coalition’s president, a psychiatric registered nurse and co-founder of Golden Group Home Services in South Portland.
Kwizera survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda before building a nursing career and business in Maine.
“For the first time, our agencies are collectively raising our voices to illuminate the indispensable role that immigrant-owned care businesses play in the health and well-being of Maine’s residents and communities,” he added.
Member agencies collectively provide care for more than 400 individuals with intellectual disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, traumatic brain injuries and severe behavioral and psychiatric diagnoses, representing roughly one quarter of all Section 21 providers in Maine, according to the report. Each shift is typically staffed by a two direct care workers, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
With its launch, the coalition said its agenda includes expanding membership and geographic reach, increasing access to training and professional development, maintaining and improving compliance with applicable regulations, standards and best practices, recruiting workforce, advocating for equitable MaineCare reimbursement, addressing workforce burnout and strengthening relationships with the state’s Office of Aging and Disability Services and Disability Rights Maine.
While there is no central address for the coalition, the members typically meet in South Portland, a spokesperson told Mainebiz.
