In the coming months, Congress will be negotiating FY26 appropriations bills, determining what portion of our tax dollars go to programs for national defense and, what is often mistakenly seen as its antithesis, immigration and humanitarian aid.

Maine’s Sen. Susan Collins, as chair of the Appropriations Committee, has made it clear that she will have to make trade-offs. But vital protections and support for refugees cannot be sacrificed.

Places like Portland would not exist in the same way without the essential work done by immigrant community members, many of whom stay on work permits in this country as part of broader humanitarian protections that allow them refuge while their origin countries face turmoil.

Congress recently approved additional spending of $170 billion for immigration enforcement. The trade-off is not one of “programs for U.S. citizens” or “programs to support refugees.” It is a question of continuing to spend billions of dollars funding deportations and detentions or using the same money to instead invest in these communities who will continue to come to this country for hope and opportunity no matter how many barriers our government tries to put up. Imagine what we could create.

I appreciate Sen. Collins’ recent statements on the importance of protecting our immigrant communities, and I hope to see these statements of allyship translated into policy. I urge her team, as well as the rest of Maine’s federal representatives, to refuse any deal that sacrifices essential support for refugee programs and protections in the upcoming FY26 bills.

Savannah Averitt
Bar Harbor