As a member of the faith community, I am appalled at the decision of the Trump administration to defer $1 billion of Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota. Will Maine be next?

According to an Associated Press report that appeared in the July 22 Portland Press Herald, payments have been stopped to states where there is “suspected fraud and noncompliance.” They are states demonstrating against ICE when their neighbors are misidentified and murdered. What happened to “innocent until proven guilty”?

We live under a government creating fear and punishing those who follow the law.

Sen. Susan Collins voted with her Republican colleagues to approve the $70 billion legislative package that funds U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other immigration enforcement. The same ICE that Troy Jackson is actively campaigning to dissolve.

I will proudly vote for Troy Jackson for U.S. Senate, a fifth-generation Allagash logger and six- year president of the Maine Senate.

Carole Beal
Blue Hill