“The reality is people are being essentially disappeared and are picked up roadside and their whereabouts may be unknown for days at a time,” Melissa Brennan, co-legal director of Maine’s Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, told Maine Public. ICE is also executing a deliberate strategy of moving detainees out of state and even out of the country to prevent them from accessing community or legal support, she and others have pointed out.
Read MoreILAP’s weekly summary of key immigration law and policy developments and an action alert to speak out against Congress funding authoritarianism in the U.S.
Read MoreBlack trailblazers in a variety of fields, including politics, justice, education and outdoor recreation, were honored Aug. 1 at the Maine Black Excellence Awards at Caswell Farm in Gray. The annual gathering is the signature event of the Portland-based nonprofit The Third Place, which connects Maine’s Black professionals, students and entrepreneurs to social, professional and economic opportunities.
Read MoreMore than 50,000 migrants are being held in detention nationwide as part of the Trump administrations mass deportation goals. And the numbers are projected to rise rapidly with the new funding boost for ICE. We examine what has been happening in Maine since January in terms of arrests, detentions, and deportations. Who is being targeted by law enforcement, how many in Maine are affected, and what legal questions are being raised?
Featuring Melissa Brennan, co-legal director of ILAP, as a panelist.
Read MoreILAP executive director, Sue Roche, Esq. also provided further information that Two Bridges Regional Jail (TBRJ) Administrator James Bailey was unable to answer for the original article. Specifically, asked where ICE detainees are sent upon prison release, her reply in a July 24 email stated: "This really depends on the individual case. The Immigration Court in Chelmsford, Massachusetts now has jurisdiction over removal proceedings for individuals who reside in Maine. There is also an immigration court in Boston, but after the Chelmsford court was opened last year, most Maine cases are held in Chelmsford.”
Read MoreLisa Parisio, a policy director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Portland, said, “We have tracked 17 minor traffic stops that have happened since March where more than 40 people have been handed over by local law enforcement to immigration officers.” This includes people with valid work permits and no criminal history, she said.
Read MoreMaine immigration advocates warned that hundreds of people living in Maine to escape wars, gang violence and natural disasters would have faced deportation within weeks had the administration terminated their legal protections.
Read MoreILAP submits a public comment objecting to the Trump administration’s decision to end protection from deportation and access to work permits for abused, neglected, or abandoned children with Special Immigrant Juvenile Status while they wait on their pending cases.
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