I am responding to the recent editorial “Welfare for all asylum-seekers is unsustainable,” a piece that asserts that Maine cannot afford to support asylum-seekers while they await refugee status.

It is the position of the Maine Council of Churches that to change a DHHS rule to take general assistance from these vulnerable brothers and sisters is morally indefensible. The editorial’s distinction between citizen and non-citizen runs counter to our Bible-based view of the human family, whom we believe to be created in God’s image.

As much as 75 percent of the population in Maine were either foreign-born or first-generation American by 1910, most of them Franco-Americans. They moved to mill towns like Biddeford and Sanford. York County is largely populated by “immigrants” who endured much oppression from their Anglo predecessors throughout Maine. Sadly, oppression has a way of repeating itself.

African asylum-seekers are hard-working people who cannot wait to gain permission to work and support themselves. They inspire many who often take citizenship for granted. In economic terms, it appears that the “return” is very high for these displaced people.

The council agrees that the visa process for asylum seekers is too cumbersome. We do not agree that they should pay for this slow process with hunger, homelessness and untreated illness.

As a nation of immigrants, if we have no compassionate moral compass, then we have lost our way.

-Rev. Dr. William M. Barter, executive director, Maine Council of Churches