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'It's forward-thinking': Maine immigration advocates praise new federal program

Under Welcome Corps, volunteers will handle the logistics and financial commitments required to help refugees coming to the U.S.

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine has welcomed thousands of asylum seekers in the last couple of years. Some estimate as many as 50,000 immigrants and refugees now call the state home. 

There's now a new federal program that allows Americans to help resettle refugees in the United States. The program is called Welcome Corps.

Under Welcome Corps, volunteers will handle the logistics and financial commitments required to help refugees coming to the U.S. 

Maine immigrant advocates said the program is a big step forward.

"As an immigrant advocate, I am thrilled as you can imagine," Reza Jalali, executive director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center, said about the new program. "This is something that not only helps refugees but also, it helps average American citizens to get to know these refugees."

Jalali said this is especially important in a place like Maine, where there's been an influx of people seeking asylum in the last few years.

"We’re seeing refugees from Afghanistan, from Ukraine,” Jalali explained. 

Despite the praise, there are concerns among some advocates if a program like this can last in a nation so divided. 

Mufalo Chitam with the Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition said the new Welcome Corps program is a step in the right direction and goes beyond what existing refugee resettlement programs offer. 

"It gets the community engaged before somebody comes here," Chitan told NEWS CENTER Maine. "This will just add to other ways of helping refugees to come to Maine." 

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