Paul LePage, a former Maine governor and early supporter of President Trump who is now running for Congress, said during a campaign event this week that his son’s father-in-law is being wrongfully deported because of his country of origin.
“My son’s wife’s dad is here legally,” Mr. LePage said at a news conference after being endorsed by a police union. “But he’s being deported because he came from a country that’s not liked by certain people in Washington. That’s not right.”
The former governor made sweeping statements while in office that denigrated asylum seekers, while enacting policies that curtailed refugee resettlement and state benefits for many migrants. He touted that record in an ad this week, but also emphasized that he supports “legal, but not illegal, immigration.”
He said his son’s father-in-law has a work permit and “should be allowed to stay.” His campaign declined to provide further details about the case on Wednesday, and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Work permits are typically granted to migrants who do not have visas or green cards, such as those with Temporary Protected Status, a legal status for immigrants from troubled countries. Mr. Trump has rescinded it for hundreds of thousands of residents, including migrants from Afghanistan, Haiti and Venezuela.
Mr. LePage cited his in-law when responding to a question from a Portland Press Herald reporter about whether the arrest of immigrants without criminal records is “making Maine safe.” Maine is one of several states where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has sent a surge of agents this year as part of Mr. Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Mr. LePage replied that anyone in the U.S. illegally has “broken the law,” but said he believes enforcement actions should prioritize “people in the gangs and criminals,” because “not everybody that’s here is illegal.” He expressed frustration with immigration law, which he said “needs to be fixed.”
Mr. LePage is running for a House district in northern Maine against Matt Dunlap, a progressive state auditor, for the seat held by retiring Representative Jared Golden, a moderate Democrat.
Mr. Dunlap said the former governor was “trying to run from his record” on immigration. Mr. Dunlap has rejected calls to abolish ICE, but says the agency needs stronger oversight.
“Paul LePage is no friend to immigrants or their families,” the Democrat said in a statement. “He spent eight years demonizing them as governor, and he welcomed ICE’s overreach into Maine.”
An ICE agent fatally shot an unarmed Colombian man in Biddeford, Maine, this summer, sparking widespread protests and roiling state politics. The administration has not said whether the man, Johan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, 25, was the target of an enforcement operation, but defended the officer who opened fire.
Mr. LePage’s immigration ad released this week addresses voters in both English and French, which is still spoken by a significant segment of Maine residents of French Canadian heritage.
“Immigration built our nation,” Mr. LePage says in the ad, noting that French was his first language. He then touts his record as governor, saying he “ended Maine as an illegal immigration sanctuary state, cut off welfare to illegal immigrants, and made sure taxpayer dollars went to Mainers.”
