ILAP Statement on Announcement from Senator Collins on ICE Operation in Maine

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 29, 2026    
CONTACT: press@ilapmaine.org    

Maine – The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project is seeing a drop in new requests for emergency legal help for people arrested by ICE in Maine. We have responded to over 60 requests for help made on behalf of people detained by ICE over the past week, and are actively fighting to secure the freedom of many of these detained individuals. We hope that ICE’s enhanced operation in our state has ended, but we caution people that an end to the operation does not mean the end of all ICE or Border Patrol enforcement in our state now or going forward.  

ILAP’s Executive Director, Sue Roche said: “The need for urgent legal and other assistance for impacted families and communities remains. ILAP and partners are working to secure the freedom of people swept up by ICE over the past week, which includes mostly asylum seekers with no criminal records who were racially profiled and taken from their cars and off the streets.”   

People should continue to reach out to ILAP immediately if someone is arrested by ICE. People should also continue to learn their rights, and take all steps to prepare and protect themselves, their families, and their communities.  

Roche continued: “The impact of what is happening here in Maine will be felt for a long time – people’s lives are altered forever, and we have a lot of work and rebuilding ahead. The fear is reverberating across Maine, and so many people have completely withdrawn from public life. There is no guarantee an ICE surge or operation will not happen again, and the increased enforcement in Maine since the beginning of the Trump administration has been devastating in and of itself.  

We are deeply grateful and proud to be part of the larger community which has come together so powerfully against the administration’s absolute chaos and cruelty over the past week. We also call for the end of ICE’s terror in Minnesota and beyond, and for Congress to refuse to fund more of this needless, abject cruelty and to take all other steps to protect and uphold the rights, safety, and shared humanity of all people in the United States.”