ILAP Testimony in Support of LD 132: An Act To Implement the Attorney General's Recommendations on Data Collection in Order To Eliminate Profiling in Maine

Testimony of Julia Brown, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project In Support of LD 132: An Act To Implement the Attorney General's Recommendations on Data Collection in Order To Eliminate Profiling in Maine

“Good morning, Senator Carney, Representative Harnett, and distinguished members of the Committee on Judiciary. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in support of LD 132.

My name is Julia Brown. I am the Advocacy and Outreach Director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP). ILAP is Maine’s only statewide nonprofit provider of immigration law and related legal aid to Maine’s low-income residents. Each year, ILAP serves over 3,000 individuals statewide, coming from approximately 100 countries around the world. On behalf of ILAP and our clients, I ask the Committee to vote “ought to pass” on LD 132, otherwise known as “An Act To Implement the Attorney General's Recommendations on Data Collection in Order To Eliminate Profiling in Maine.”

Maine has a thriving and growing immigrant community. Over four percent of Mainers are immigrants, while 1 in 12 Maine residents is a native-born U.S. citizen with at least one immigrant parent.* Many members of Maine’s immigrant community are subject to systemic racism as well as anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy.

It can be difficult for members of the immigrant community to distinguish between law enforcement agencies. A bias-based stop by Maine State Police impacts an immigrant’s interactions with not just Maine State Police, but also Portland Police and any other uniformed official. The impact of this lost trust is that many of Maine’s immigrants will not contact law enforcement when they are victims of crimes or come forward as witnesses. This impedes local and state law enforcement from being able to enforce Maine’s criminal laws and consequently hurts Maine communities.

ILAP is very concerned about bias-based stops of immigrants of color. Through our work, we have heard many reports that suggest racial profiling was involved in law enforcement encounters with members of the immigrant community. We have also seen many cases where individuals of color were arrested and detained by ICE after traffic stops for minor infractions or when no reason was provided.

While we hear similar stories over and over, there is currently no mechanism to track this data. LD 132 would put an end to our anecdotal cobbling together of evidence of bias-based profiling, and instead would create a clearinghouse of discrete data. This database would help all Mainers understand the scope of this issue and show law enforcement agencies and advocacy organizations the true extent of the problem.

I urge you to vote “ought to pass” on LD 132. Thank you.”

*Immigrants in Maine, AMERICAN IMMIGRATION COUNCIL, 2020, https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/sites/default/files/research/immigrants_in_maine.pdf.

A PDF version of this statement is available here.