Lewiston, Maine, is a city transformed by Somali Migrants, but along with the new residents a wave of gang and gun violence and fraud also inundated the sanctuary city.
Republican mayoral candidate Rick LaChapelle says the city is facing some tough choices.
“Our biggest problem is the system itself. The police department is doing an excellent job catching these people. We have one young man that’s been arrested five times, I believe, for the same thing. He gets arrested, gets brought down to the youth center… gets released,” he said. “It’s been a one-party rule forever that has instilled the rules that there’s no accountability. We need to change the rules of the system.”
Lewiston became the destination of a large number of Somali migrants starting around the year 2001, and today the migrant community totals about 6,000 residents out of a town of about 39,000 people. The influx has taxed the city’s social services and schools, of course, but it is the soaring crime rate that has alarmed citizens the most.
The state’s second largest city once had a near-zero crime rate. But so far this year, the city police department reports 35 gun-related crimes, 22 of which involve Somali youth gang members, Fox News reported.
Even Somali residents of Lewison are feeling unsafe. “I don’t feel safe. I fear for my life,” Mohamed Muhumed told Fox News. “I saw someone get punched in the middle of the sidewalk over there. It’s crazy.”
Lewiston Police Chief Carly Conley said the violence is “one of the most serious public safety challenges” now facing the city.
The violence is coming at a budget cost, too. The Lewiston City Council just approved a new $200,000 budget bump for police overtime to face the rising crime rate. Town officials are calling on state law makers to change the juvenile justice system to do a better job of dealing with repeat offender youths.
The gun violence is not the only change in Lewiston since the influx of Somalians washed over the city. Lewiston has become the epicenter of fraud involving Maine’s joint federal and state Medicaid program as well.
The feds have arrested and charged a growing number of Somali migrants with Medicare fraud in the town.
Lewiston, though not officially a sanctuary city by statute, has enacted rules to prevent the police department from working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), stopping the police from honoring detainers for criminal migrants. In fact, the recent town ordinance doesn’t just restrict police from cooperating with ICE, it bans all members of city government from having contact with federal immigration officials.
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