AUGUSTA – Maine should embrace immigration because the state’s work force needs a boost and because it is the morally correct course, Gov. Angus King told members of his immigration task force Monday.

Speaking at the first meeting of the Immigration and Refugee Resettlement Management Task Force, King highlighted the economic benefits of immigration.

Maine’s population is aging and the growth of the state’s work force is not keeping pace with the needs of employers, King said.

There are an additional 12,000 to 14,000 jobs in the state each year but only 10,000 to 12,000 people are entering the work force annually, King said.

“We cannot grow economically without having sufficient people to fill the jobs,” King said.

King also said the United States was built on immigration.

It is morally right to provide a haven for newcomers, as the state did with French Canadians in years past, he said.

King said he created the 20-member task force “to respond to the increasing role of immigrants in our society here in Maine.”

The overall goal is to help immigrants adapt to life in Maine, but it was not clear whether the panel would actively promote immigration.

Michael Finnegan, director of the Maine State Housing Authority and the co-chairman of the task force, said he could envision the panel encouraging more people to settle in Maine.

“The states around this country that have grown in an economic-development way are states that honor diversity,” he said.

Lydia Hews, a panel member who represents the Maine Council of Churches, said the state should first focus on the needs of immigrants already in Maine.

“People need to feel welcome and feel safe before we encourage others to come here,” Hews said.

The task force hopes to begin drafting a more detailed agenda at its Dec. 10 meeting.

Ideas under discussion include compiling a list of services and creating a handbook and forming a separate interagency task force to help communities and others with immigration issues.

Members agreed that the panel’s task will not be completed before King leaves office Jan. 8.

Gov.-elect John Baldacci plans to meet with King and likely will keep the task force in place, according to Lee Umphrey, Baldacci’s spokesman.