A current problem involves the source of financial support for people immigrating to the U.S. because they fear for their lives: Should the money come from the state of Maine, which Gov. LePage is trying to stop, or from local communities such as Portland?

Think about this: The Jimmy Fund in Massachusetts will raise $40 million in voluntary contributions this year from one event and donate it to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

The current process for supporting immigrants to Maine is upside-down. They come to Maine in some number, and then we look for the money to support them.

Turn it around. Raise the money from fundraisers, let the organizers set a quota each year and adopt as many immigrants as the funds can support. And manage the transition to independence outside the government bureaucracy.

Leaving taxes out of this process makes the support very human-to-human-based. It makes it personal and, I am certain, much more efficient than bureaucratic, stand-in-line, hope-for-the-best anonymity.

It tosses the ball back to those who care enough to support immigration and away from those who need their own tax money to survive, which is the point of Gov. LePage’s position.

Brian C. Jones

Scarborough