Maine Supreme Court Awards Welfare Benefits to Non-Citizens

Posted on by Maine First Media

1/25/18, Maine First Media Staff Report,

Maine’s Supreme Court has ruled asylum seekers are entitled to welfare benefits.

The decision stems from a case involving two families of asylum seeker — who aren’t citizens and who aren’t working — who sued the state for not providing them with SNAP benefits.

It’s estimated 150 non-citizens will take advantage of the ruling. And those are just the previously denied cases. Many more new applicants are now likely to surface.

In addition to being gifted food stamps moving forward, asylum seekers who previously appealed the denial of benefits will be eligible for retroactive payments.

The case was heard back in November, and the state’s top court handed down its decision Tuesday.

State law allows for non-citizens, who have been approved to work in Maine, to collect government handouts on the back of working Mainers, while they look for work.

Maine legislators might consider looking into why non-citizens who can’t find a job are approved to work in Maine.

Open-border Leftist argue Maine needs illegal aliens, legal immigrants, and refugees to add diversity to the state and to fill low-skilled positions.

If the need for cheap, foreign labor is so dire, why should hardworking Mainers pay to provide the ‘new Mainers’ with food stamps while they search for job opportunities to take away from life-long Mainers?

Fortunately, the legislature capped the amount of food stamp money eligible to be paid out to non-citizens. The fund dried up in 2014. The program ate through more than $260,000 in less than one year.

But justices on the Maine Law Court ruled otherwise.

“There is no indication that the Legislature also intended for those eligible to be eligible only for a limited time or only until the predetermined funding limit was met,” the decision read. “The opposite appears to be true.”

The ruling delivers yet another reason for non-citizens, both legal and illegal, to flood into Maine looking for a handout.

The case will now be sent back to Superior Court.