News-Somalis in Maine

More than half of Lewiston Maines budget is expected to go to Somalis

LEWISTON, Maine - Somali community leaders lashed out at the mayor yesterday for asking them to discourage friends and family from moving to Lewiston, calling his message "inflammatory and disturbing."

The Somalis said Mayor Larry Raymond's three-page letter, which came after several clashes between blacks and whites in the community, will increase tensions and called on cops to guarantee the safety of Somalis.

The letter, which was signed by 25 Somali leaders, also called Raymond an "ill-informed leader who is bent toward bigotry."

In his three-page letter last week, Raymond wrote that the city of 36,000 has absorbed more than 1,000 Somalis in 18 months, and cannot absorb more newcomers "without negative results for all."

"Our city is maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally," he wrote.

City officials estimate that about half of the 412 Somali adults living in Lewiston have found work, but some are receiving public assistance.

General assistance spending in Maine's second-largest city has more than doubled during the past 12 months, and more than half of the $528,000 budget is expected to go to Somalis, officials said.

The Somalis came to the United States from camps in Kenya, where they fled to escape their country's civil war. Many of them originally settled in the Atlanta area but decided to leave the city and its high crime rate in favor of Maine, which has one of the nation's lowest crime rates. "To be calm and without trouble, that is why we chose here. In big cities, life is hard," said Mohamed Diriye, who moved to Lewiston from Atlanta.

Raymond has said he stands behind the letter.

Back to Current News

CONSERVATIVE NEWS INDEPENDENT RESEARCH EXCLUSIVE ARTICLES