ILAP Community Update: May 16
May 16, 2025
Dear Community,
Earlier this month, ILAP launched our Maine Home for All campaign because we believe everyone deserves to feel safe, be with family, and build the life they want here in Maine. We have been inspired by the creative ways we've seen this message spread - and the ways Mainers across the state are putting it into action by continuing to advocate, protect, and defend the rights of immigrants and all people.
In the face of unrelenting attacks on immigrant communities, our goal is a clear message of welcome, belonging, and home. We must continue to push back against the onslaught of injustice and hold firm to the future we want to see - a Maine that is home for all.
You can head to ilapmaine.org/home-for-all to download posters and learn how you can help us spread this message across the state.
ILAP attended the Maine Farm Supper at the Yarmouth First Universalist Church and arrived to find "Maine Home for All” yard signs that the church had printed to distribute. Thank you!
ILAP staff member with his family at our recent Spring Gathering -a home for all means all ages too! Photo by Tsukroff Photography.
CALL TO ACTION
Take Action Against Congress Funding Authoritarianism in the United States
As the appropriations process moves ahead in Washington, D.C., Detention Watch Network, Immigrant Defense Project, Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and National Immigrant Justice Center have released a key new report which analyzes the role of the federal budget in enabling authoritarianism in the U.S., including the administration’s policies and practices to surveil, arrest, detain, deport, and silence immigrants and the people who support them.
The report, Resisting Authoritarianism: Our Collective Struggle Against Trump’s Escalating Attacks on Immigrant Communities, includes several targeted action alerts, in addition to important information we all need to be informed.
The report opens with a quote from Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who continues to be imprisoned in a Louisiana detention center following his activism for human rights in Palestine:
“Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the 21-year old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing...Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.”
You can find contact information for your elected officials and more advocacy resources on ILAP's Take Action Resources page. Your voice matters - thank you for stepping up to make a difference.
Immigration Law & Policy Updates
ILAP is committed to helping our community make sense of immigration news and its impact. Below is a summary of some key immigration law and policy developments during the first two weeks of May 2025.
PLEASE NOTE: All updates are subject to rapid change.
Immigration Announcement:
Three federal judges rule that the administration can’t use Alien Enemies Act wartime powers to deport people
What It Means:
The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) – a wartime power – to remove people from the U.S. has been ruled unlawful by three federal judges, including a Trump appointed judge. The AEA is a law from the late 1700s, giving the president power to detain and deport people when at war or a foreign government is invading the U.S. The Trump administration has tried to establish that the presence of people in the U.S. alleged to be members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, amounts to such an “invasion.”
A recent Freedom of Information Act request revealed that the administration itself does not believe that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is taking orders from the Venezuelan government.
Furthermore, no proof exists that many of the Venezuelans targeted under the AEA are actual members of the gang. Many have been sent to a brutal Salvadoran prison under the AEA.
The administration has deprived people of basic due process during these violent removals. Previously, in the course of litigation over the use of the AEA, the Supreme Court ruled that people are entitled to due process when the administration invokes the AEA.
While these court decisions are coming down, the administration appears to be laying the groundwork to expand the use of the AEA, designating Haitian gangs as foreign terrorist organizations. Reporting shows that this designation could also cause deep harms to people in Haiti.
Administration rolls out stipend program to incentivize self-deportation
The administration has announced a new program that it claims will provide financial travel assistance to people who choose to self-deport as well as a $1,000 stipend to be paid when people are back in their home countries.
In messaging around the program, DHS has made statements implying that self-deporting may help create opportunities for people to re-enter the United States in the future. Only a qualified immigration attorney, doing an individual assessment, can provide guidance on future immigration options. Anyone considering using this program should speak with a qualified immigration attorney first.
Nonprofit organizations sue administration for suddenly ending program that provided legal counsel to detained people with mental illness and cognitive disabilities
No one navigating the immigration legal system is guaranteed an attorney, including detained people who have been found mentally incompetent by a judge and unable to represent themselves in court.
Federal funding to provide access to counsel for these incredibly vulnerable people was suddenly ended by the Trump administration at the end of April, cutting off this lifeline to approximately 200 people.
Nine organizations that provided representation to people under the program are suing the administration for the termination of the program and its impacts on existing attorney-client relationships and for other procedural violations.
In addition to the extreme challenges of navigating the immigration legal system while living with mental illness or a cognitive disability, some people with mental illness or disabilities are at risk of persecution, torture, and death in home countries.
U.S. House of Representatives proposed reconciliation budget includes unprecedented fees for asylum, Temporary Protected Status, and more.
Congress is currently considering the U.S. House of Representative’s proposed reconciliation budget, which includes $140 billion to fund the Trump administration’s mass deportations and huge fees for seeking immigration protection like asylum, Temporary Protected Status, and associated work permits.
The bill proposes a $1,000 fee for asylum and $550 for a work permit (while also making work permits only valid for 6 month increments). For every year an asylum application is pending in our backlogged system, $100 dollars will be charged. There is no fee waiver.
Learn more about the proposed budget reconciliation bill in the House in this key policy brief and analysis by the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
PLEASE NOTE: This bill is NOT current law, it is a proposal at this time.
For previous updates from ILAP, check out the links below:
April 30, 2025: April Golden Door
April 18, 2025: Community Update
April 11, 2025: Community Update
Join ILAP's Team: Communications and Development Specialist
ILAP is currently seeking a full-time Communications and Development Specialist, a role focused on growing awareness and support for ILAP's work through strategic communications and storytelling.
ILAP’s base salary for this position ranges from $70,040 - $78,280. Placement on our salary scale is based on multiple factors including job classification and years of relevant experience.
Review of applications will begin on May 26, 2025, and will continue until the position is filled. Please help us spread the word!
Know Your Rights
An important step you can take now to protect yourself is to learn your rights! See ILAP’s resources here.
Stay Connected:
Follow ILAP @ilapmaine on social media for the latest updates:
Members of the Maine Bar can support ILAP’s work by donating to the Campaign for Justice, a special collaborative fundraising effort by Maine’s legal community to support legal aid.
