PORTLAND (AP) — Portland and Westbrook will join a municipal group to challenge Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s administration’s policy banning some immigrants from receiving welfare.

The cities say they will take part in lawsuit the Maine Municipal Association plans to file over the directive that immigrants who can’t prove that they’re in the country legally not be provided general assistance benefits.

The Republican governor’s administration has pledged to cut all funding for the program for cities and towns that continue to provide the aid to that segment of the population.

A spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services told the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1n7kD57 ) that it’s a common sense policy and that the state is enforcing federal law.

Democratic Attorney General Janet Mills has said that the directive is unconstitutional.