LEWISTON — The council’s decision to provide general assistance to asylum seekers getting aid now will continue until the state, the courts or the voters figure out what’s happening.

Councilors on Tuesday declined to a take a second run at a June 30 decision that capped an emotional, three-hour meeting.

“Right at the moment, there are simply so many uncertainties about this that the only thing I can say assuredly is that we are going to continue to do what we were directed to do by the council at our last meeting,” Barrett said.

In that 4-3 vote, councilors agreed to close the books on its welfare rolls for new asylum-seekers, not accepting new seekers in its General Assistance program as of July 1. Those currently getting help from the city may continue indefinitely.

Councilor Shane Bouchard, who voted with the majority on June 30, ended the meeting asking to have it put on Tuesday’s agenda for reconsideration.

He withdrew that reconsideration on July 8 and the matter was not part of Tuesday’s agenda.

Bouchard said he was moved by the 33 people who spoke in favor of extending benefits for asylum seekers on June 30, but subsequent conversations with his constituents convinced him he’d made the right decision.

“I was going door to door, getting signatures for my nomination petitions, and this was the topic that people wanted to talk about,” he said. “They told me they agreed with what the council had decided, and I decided that I would not be representing those people if I changed my vote.”

Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services wants to disallow the use of state funds for General Assistance distributed to undocumented immigrants and people that are here but have not been granted asylum status yet. Those people are here legally, but cannot work until they get that status.

The State Superior Court ruled in May that communities like Lewiston are not required to pay people without legal status. They can if they so choose, but the state is not required to reimburse those payments.

Legislators passed a bill that would pay General Assistance for asylum seekers and Gov. Paul LePage failed to act on it within a ten-day deadline. According to some legislators, that means the bill is now law, and a group has begun circulating petitions to force a public vote on the matter.

“I do not know how this issue is going to be eventually presented to a court, which seems to me will some day be required,” Barrett said.

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