Brewer interviewed for MPBN report on immigrant families receiving welfare
Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, spoke with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network for the report, “State scrutinizes immigrant families receiving welfare after one link to Islamic State reported.” The LePage administration recently said it is scouring its welfare rolls to detect fraud and abuse by immigrants, and to ensure taxpayer money isn’t flowing to would-be terrorists, the report states. The announcement follows the recent revelation of Adnan Fazeli, an Iranian refugee from Maine, who died fighting for the terror group ISIS, and a claim that the man and his family received benefits, MPBN reported. “This is certainly one of those times where reality barely matters, if at all,” Brewer said. “He [Fazeli] could be the only person that fits out there and it still doesn’t matter.” Brewer said, politically speaking, the Fazeli case is a trifecta for LePage and his supporters in the Maine Republican Party. “It’s really like a win, win, win for Republicans,” he said, adding the controversy hits across three key issues that Republicans have successfully used to their advantage.