Immigrants have long been the heart of Maine’s communities and economy. These days, recent immigrants care for our loved ones, harvest our food, teach our kids and keep our hospitals and hotels running. They’re our neighbors, co-workers, friends and family. Like the rest of us, they pay taxes and work hard to raise kids and contribute to their communities.

For Maine, recent immigrants also help fill jobs in a state where the population is getting older and the workforce is shrinking.

So what’s Congress doing? Pushing a cruel new budget plan that widens divisions between us and our immigrant friends and neighbors and punishes states like Maine for daring to care. The plan slashes food assistance, guts health care, cuts child tax credits and pours more money into immigration enforcement and surveillance. It targets immigrants, including those with legal status, and throws Maine’s progress under the bus.

The GOP plan says immigrants, including people seeking refuge and asylum, shouldn’t get help buying groceries through SNAP (food stamps). That means moms and dads trying to make ends meet will be left with empty fridges. Kids will go to bed hungry. Food pantries will be stretched ever thinner. And hunger will rise. It’s cruel and it makes no sense.

Maine decided that pregnant people, new moms and kids — no matter where they were born — deserve health care. We used our own state money to make that happen. Now Congress wants to punish us. The GOP plan would cut $630 million in federal health care funding from Maine over seven years, all because we dared to take care of our neighbors. This is a heavy-handed attempt by the federal government to dictate state policy and spending decisions.

Here’s the truth: Taking away health insurance doesn’t make people healthier. It just means folks wait until they’re really sick to go to the ER, which is way more expensive and dangerous for everyone.

This bill also takes a wrecking ball to the Child Tax Credit, one of the best tools we have to fight child poverty. If passed, the bill would deny the full credit to children whose parents don’t have Social Security numbers — even if the kids are U.S. citizens. That’s nearly 2 million kids across the country left behind. These families are already dealing with high rent, high food prices and high child care costs.

And if that wasn’t enough, the bill also pumps more cash into immigration enforcement. That means more detention centers, more surveillance and more workplace raids by masked agents.

People with and without legal status are getting caught in the crosshairs: legal immigrants with work permits and pending asylum applications, like the Cumberland County corrections officer detained on his way to work, students with visas and people picked up and detained just because a stranger made a phone call.

This kind of over-policing doesn’t make us safer — it spreads fear. Kids miss school. Sick folks skip the doctor. Victims of crime don’t call the police. Workers stay home. This is not the way to build safe and stable communities.

Immigrants are part of what makes Maine strong. They work hard, pay taxes and help keep our communities running. When we shut them out of basic supports like food, health care and tax credits, we’re hurting far more than immigrant families — we’re hurting local economies, too.

The GOP’s federal budget plan doesn’t reflect our values. It punishes people for trying to build a better life and tears at the fabric of our communities. We urge lawmakers to reject the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Start over.

Maine has led the way in showing what smart, compassionate policy can look like. It’s time for Congress to follow our lead — not crush our progress.