ILAP Community Update: September 12

September 12, 2025

Dear Community,

As school starts again, our hearts go out to all the children and families in our communities living under the threats of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. Yesterday, there were reports of ICE arresting a parent after they dropped off their child at school in Portland, spreading pain and fear in the community. Although we are currently waiting for confirmation, circumstances suggest this was an immigration enforcement action. Immigration enforcement near a school is cruel and absolutely needless – it is meant to terrorize.

We know so many of you are facing difficult decisions about how to keep your children and families safe right now. We thank the educators and school administrators who continue to take steps to serve and safeguard all children and families in Maine. As a reminder, people in need of immigration legal assistance can reach out to ILAP here.

Congress recently passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” allocating $170 billion for mass deportation. America’s Voice broke down what could happen if that money were spent on education instead:

Build over 7,000 new elementary schools in communities nationwide

Ensure kids can succeed in school and life by funding the Head Start program for nearly 14 years

Give over 3 million teachers who spend their own money on supplies an $800 annual classroom fund

Buy school supplies for over 45 million K-12 students for 4 years

Fund a $10,000 annual federal tax credit for all 4 million teachers for over 4 years

To learn more, check out this recent press conference from America’s Voice, featuring educators, child psychologists, and immigration experts. Here are some of the resources that were shared during the event:

National Education Association: Guidance on Immigration Issues

Los Angeles Unified School District: We Are One resource webpage

Action Alert: Support Families Affected by the Ellabell, Georgia Raids

On September 4, ICE carried out the largest enforcement raid in its history, arresting 475 workers at the Hyundai plant in Ellabell, Georgia. In addition to tearing apart and terrorizing families, the raid caused diplomatic alarm in South Korea, where the majority of the noncitizen workers arrested were from. Reporting describes the terror and chaos created by the Trump administration at the scene: “Workers described the scene as a ‘war zone.’ One hid in an air duct to avoid capture. Others tried to flee into a sewage pond … By the end of the day, hundreds were gone.”

Migrant Equity Southeast is responding, helping coordinate legal aid, housing, food, transportation, and community care for the hundreds of individuals and families impacted.

Learn more and take action

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 developments from the past few weeks, as of September 12, 2025.

Immigration Announcement:

Temporary Protected Status updates

What It Means:

On Sept. 8, Temporary Protected Status ended for Honduras and Nicaragua, affecting approximately 50,000 people. TPS holders from these countries have lived in the U.S. for approximately 25 years. The termination will result in people having no immigration status or protection from deportation, family separation and other destabilization, businesses losing workers, and more.

In a major decision, a federal court temporarily blocked the administration from ending TPS for Venezuela and Haiti. For the time being, approximately 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians will retain their TPS work permits and protection from deportation. The Trump administration is expected to appeal.

Legislation to protect Afghan allies re-introduced

Since the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan and fall of the country to the Taliban in 2021, Afghans, veterans, and other advocates have been working to pass legislation that would provide green cards and a streamlined path to permanent protection in the U.S. to Afghan allies who were evacuated.

Members of Congress have reintroduced the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act, as well as related legislative measures, in the continued effort to protect those who put their lives at risk to assist the U.S. military.

Follow the Afghan-American Foundation and the #ThisIsHome campaign to learn more.

Administration attempts extraordinarily cruel deportation operation targeting Guatemalan children

Over Labor Day weekend, the Trump administration attempted to forcibly remove dozens of Guatemalan children from the U.S.

Responding immigration attorneys reported: “We witnessed children, some as young as ten years old, abruptly awoken in the middle of the night and ordered to pack their belongings because they were being sent back.Terrified and confused, they desperately tried to recall what little they understood about their cases, what the immigration judges had told them, and understand why this was happening. Their grief was overwhelming; they cried so intensely that many had swollen eyes.” 

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the administration from deporting the children following a class action lawsuit.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia continues to fight for his rights and freedom

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was taken back into ICE custody on August 25, after being reunited with his family for only 3 days. A federal judge in Maryland has ordered that he be held in the U.S. for now. His next hearing will be in early October.

During the few days Kilmar was reunited with his family, he shared this message: “I’m going to keep fighting for my constitutional rights, to have my day in court. Let’s continue fighting. Not just for me, for all the families that have been separated, and for justice to be done.”

Watch Kilmar’s full message here. Take action for Kilmar and his family here.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announces new "special agents" with enforcement powers

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the federal agency responsible for adjudicating immigration applications and is generally considered the “benefits-granting” arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration enforcement is carried out in other sub-agencies of the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Adding enforcement officers to USCIS – who will be empowered to carry firearms, order removals, and more – will have a serious chilling effect on people applying for immigration benefits and protections they may be entitled to or sharing any information with the agency.

This announcement will lead to people who may be eligible for immigration status under U.S. law not applying and result in more people living undocumented in the U.S. It will also have economic repercussions, as people may be too afraid to have any interaction at all with the immigration system, including seeking work permits.

600 military lawyers have been authorized to serve as temporary immigration judges

The Department of Justice has changed the requirements to be an immigration judge in order to allow military lawyers to take the places of the more than 100 immigration judges who have been fired or resigned since the beginning of the Trump administration. In the immigration court that serves Maine, located in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, there are only seven judges left out of 21.

In an interview, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles who was in the Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps said that she believed the move is unlawful and would likely violate the Posse Comitatus Act which bars U.S. troops from participating in civilian law enforcement. “It’s ‘frightening,’ VanLandingham said of the plan, because ‘the use of military courts to hear civilian cases is the essential component of martial law. What you end up with is military officers under federal control who are running civilian courts.

Request Legal Help from ILAP:

Upcoming Portland Walk-In Hours:

Thursday September 25 at 10:00AM at ILAP’s Portland office at 489 Congress Street 3rd Floor, Portland, ME 04101
Thursday, October 23 at 10:00AM at ILAP’s Portland office at 489 Congress Street 3rd Floor, Portland, ME 04101

Upcoming Lewiston Walk-In Hours: