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Gov. Janet Mills has signed a bipartisan bill that directs the Maine Commissioner of Labor to ask the federal government for a waiver that would let asylum seekers work faster while their asylum petitions are processed. The lack of such a waiver process in federal law essentially makes this a messaging bill.

But it remains an important message.

As Nick Murray from the conservative Maine Policy Institute described to state lawmakers in March, the existing rules, which prevent asylum seekers from working for at least six months after they file their asylum petition, are “nonsensical.” That’s the right word.

The bill signed by Mills on May 11, which was led by Republican state Sen. Eric Brakey, seeks to allow asylum seekers to work as soon as they have applied for asylum.

“Newcomers arriving into our state immigrate to this country fleeing from persecution and violence, and in search of work and means to provide for their families,” Republican state Sen. Rick Bennett, one of the bill’s sponsors, also testified in March. “As a rule, we should always be trying to help those trying to put food on the table for their folks, and we should always look out for the businesses run by our constituents here in Maine, in this case helping them with their labor shortages.”

Even some who did not...

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