The Golden Door: September 2026
Dear Community,
At ILAP, we believe that being an effective immigrant rights’ organization means responding quickly as our community's needs change. Over the past two years, as immigration enforcement in Maine has escalated, that has meant rapidly building new legal services programming and developing new systemic advocacy strategies to push back against it.
This month, we are sharing two resources that show what that work has looked like.
Our 2025 Annual Report is a reflection on the first year of the second Trump administration. In that unprecedented and volatile time, we reached nearly 6,000 people across Maine through direct legal services and community legal education, and thousands more through significant state and local policy wins.
What that year looked like on the ground: a continuum of direct legal services to 2,178 people, including 388 full representation cases, alongside legal education and outreach reaching 3,804 community members and service providers across 134 events. Our volunteer attorneys gave nearly 2,932 hours. Clients came from more than 90 countries of origin and lived in all sixteen Maine counties.
Our new Detention Project one-pager takes a closer look at the program we built in response to rising detentions in Maine. ILAP's Detention Project works to secure release from detention as quickly as possible, filing habeas petitions and representing clients in bond hearings. From January through August of this year, ILAP received more than 380 requests for help and secured the release of 81 individual clients from detention. Since hiring our first dedicated detention attorney last year, we have added two more members to the Detention Project team, and we are now hiring for two more roles, listed at the end of this newsletter.
Thank you to every member of our community helping us meet this moment. Your dedication, partnership, and willingness to speak truth to power make a difference in people’s lives every day.
In solidarity,
The ILAP Team
GET LEGAL HELP
Request help for someone detained by immigration officials:
ilapmaine.org/detention
Request help for other types of immigration legal cases in Maine:
ilapmaine.org/requestMeet with ILAP to get answers to quick immigration questions:
ilapmaine.org/request#meetKnow Your Rights:
aclumaine.org/preparingforice/Make a Family Preparedness Plan:
ilapmaine.org/prepare
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 from the past few weeks. All updates are subject to rapid change.
Impacts of Haiti Temporary Protected Status Termination
The Trump administration has increased deportations to Haiti following the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in July. Haiti remains one of the most catastrophic humanitarian disasters in the world, and safe return is impossible. On August 23, more than 100 people were abducted and 47 killed in gang violence near Haiti's capital city.
On August 31, Pierre Damas Bel, a 20-year-old Haitian college student in Springfield, Ohio, died by suicide, according to his family. He lost TPS when Haiti’s designation ended, and in July ICE required him to wear an ankle monitor, which his family says left him feeling humiliated. Support Pierre's family directly here.
A bill that would restore TPS for Haiti remains pending in the Senate. It has already passed the House with bipartisan support. Call on Senator Collins to support the bill here.
American Dream and Promise Act Discharge Petition
A discharge petition that would bring the American Dream and Promise Act to the House floor is only one Congressional signature away.
The American Dream and Promise Act would provide access to permanent residence for DACA recipients, other undocumented youth, Temporary Protected Status holders, and others, as well as certain pathways to citizenship. Both the discharge petition and American Dream and Promise Act have bipartisan support.
Both Representatives Pingree and Golden signed on, and Representative Pingree is an original cosponsor of the bill.
Administration Fails to Make Decision on Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador
By law, the Department of Homeland Security must make a decision whether to extend or terminate TPS for a currently-designated country 60 days in advance of the end of the designation period.
The administration failed to announce a decision on TPS for El Salvador, and made the unprecedented announcement that a decision will be made "at the appropriate time" and "Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection including work authorization."
This nondecision leaves Salvadoran TPS holders in Maine and beyond in a state of limbo. Read ILAP's press release here.
New federal data confirms what our legal team has been seeing all year: immigration enforcement in Maine has expanded dramatically.
Maine Morning Star reported that ICE has arrested more people in Maine so far in 2026 than in the previous two years combined, and that those arrests have overwhelmingly involved people with no criminal convictions. The numbers come from the Deportation Data Project, which obtains ICE records through Freedom of Information Act litigation. Of the 491 ICE arrests that led to detention in Maine through August 6, nearly 89% were of people with no criminal conviction. The article quotes ILAP's Policy Director, Lisa Parisio, who said that most arrests in recent months happen as people leave home for work, as they head home at the end of the day, or in what she described as more random racial profiling pickups.
The Portland Press Herald reported on ICE arrests near Maine courthouses and their effect on the judicial system, including concerns that enforcement activity is keeping people from appearing for hearings and discouraging victims and witnesses from coming forward. In a statement to the paper, Lisa said courthouse arrests show the administration's disregard for the rule of law and due process, and called on Congress to defund and dismantle the agency. The article also notes that advocates have urged people to request Zoom hearings, pay fines online rather than at courthouses, and make an emergency plan, and it links readers to ilapmaine.org/prepare.
The Press Herald also published a guide to resources for immigrants in Maine, available in English and French. ILAP is listed in the legal section, and the guide points readers to ilapmaine.org/request for intake information and the schedule for walk-in hours.
How Mainers Are Showing Up For Immigrant Communities & ILAP
People across Maine keep finding ways to show up for immigrant communities. Here is what is coming up this fall, and what we are grateful for this month.
October 1: HHRC Celebration at the Portland Museum of Art. The Holocaust and Human Rights Center of Maine will celebrate the recipients of the 2026 Gerda Haas Award for Excellence in Human Rights Education and Leadership, the Center's highest honor, at a community event at the Portland Museum of Art. ILAP's Executive Director, Sue Roche, is one of this year's honorees. The evening begins with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the sculpture park, followed by remarks from the honorees in the auditorium, and closes in the café with coffee and desserts.
October 8: ProsperityME's 18th Annual Community Block Party. ProsperityME gathers donors, sponsors, businesses, educators, community leaders, and volunteers for an evening built around this year's theme, "Better Together for Maine," with a reception, live music, a panel discussion, an awards ceremony, and dinner. The Block Party runs from 4:30 to 8 p.m. at Innovation Hall at the University of New England, and discounted tickets are available for anyone for whom the price is a barrier.
October 24: Benefit Concert for ILAP. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick and Woodfords Congregational Church of Portland are hosting a concert to benefit ILAP at 7 p.m. on Saturday, October 24, at Woodfords Congregational Church, 202 Woodfords Street in Portland, with doors open at 6:30 p.m. The evening brings together music, poetry, and dance from Maine artists of many cultural backgrounds. Donations are accepted at the door and go directly to ILAP and to presenting artists affected by recent immigration activity.
Looking back: On September 17, the Maine Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Late Deafened held its 35th Annual Tea in Celebration of Deaf Culture Week at the Hall of Flags in the State House in Augusta. ILAP was honored to receive the Outstanding Commendation Award. We are grateful to the Commission, and to the Deaf community members and interpreters who have shaped this work.
Planning something for ILAP? Let us know at contact@ilapmaine.org and we will help spread the word.
The Important Work of Maine Needs
Legal help is one piece of what it takes to build a life here. Many of the people ILAP works alongside are starting over from very little, and when a family's primary wage earner is detained or afraid to leave the house, even the basics can slip out of reach.
Maine Needs exists for those moments. In their own words, they are "striving to build a community where everyone helps and no one goes without." Their approach is solidarity, not charity: they believe that worth does not have to be proven and support does not have to be earned.
Maine Needs provides essentials like clothing, hygiene products, and household items to newly arrived immigrant families and long-time Maine families alike, including people seeking asylum, students, survivors of domestic violence, and neighbors facing financial hardship. Caseworkers, teachers, nurses, and outreach teams submit requests on behalf of the people they support, and volunteers gather the items and send them out at no cost. With students back in school this month, that includes teachers asking for what a child needs to show up ready to learn. What began in 2019 as a Facebook group now reaches about 77,000 people a year across Maine.
If you are able, please support their work directly by volunteering or giving at maineneeds.org.
Have a Donor-Advised Fund? Your Gift Could be Matched
If you give through a donor-advised fund (DAF), a national campaign called #HalfMyDAF could help your gifts to ILAP, or to any nonprofit you care about, go further. This fall, #HalfMyDAF has more than $1 million in matching funds available for nonprofits nominated by DAF holders who commit to giving at least half of their DAF funds this year.
Here is how it works: make a grant of $250 or more from your DAF to ILAP or another nonprofit of your choice, then nominate that organization on the #HalfMyDAF website with your grant confirmation by October 8. Nominated grants are entered into a drawing for dollar-for-dollar matches of up to $5,000, and one nonprofit will be selected for a $25,000 match.
It takes a few minutes, and every nomination improves the odds.
Questions? Reach out to us at contact@ilapmaine.org.
In response to the ongoing high levels of immigration enforcement in Maine, ILAP is growing its Detention Project team. We are currently hiring for the following roles:
Staff Attorney/Senior Staff Attorney, Detention Project
Provide direct representation to Maine residents detained by U.S. immigration officials, and to residents of other states being detained in Maine. The primary focus is representing detained clients in custody and bond proceedings before the Immigration Court and, when appropriate, pursuing related litigation in federal court. The attorney will also contribute to detention-related intake, case assessment, training, and team support. ILAP's base salary for this position ranges from $74,263 to $89,116 and includes a generous benefits package.
Legal Assistant, Detention Project (Two-Year Fellowship)
Support ILAP's work to expand access to legal services for people impacted by immigration detention. The Legal Assistant reviews and screens requests for legal help concerning Maine residents detained by U.S. immigration authorities, as well as people from other states detained in Maine, and plays a central role in ILAP's growing detention response. ILAP's base salary for this position ranges from $53,045 to $57,289 and includes a generous benefits package.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the positions are filled. Interested candidates should review the full job description and follow the application instructions included in each posting. Please share these opportunities with your network to help spread the word!
For previous updates from ILAP, check out the links below:
August, 2026: August Golden Door
July, 2026: July Golden Door
June, 2026: June Golden Door