Mass Deportation Policy in Maine’s Communities
What’s Happening & What’s Next
One of the most common questions ILAP’s team has received from community members, the press, and elected officials over the past few months is: What does immigration enforcement look like in Maine? It’s a question that we’re grateful to say is typically followed by: And what can we do about it?
The starting place for understanding what’s happening to Maine’s immigrant communities is clarity around how cruel, counterproductive, and needless mass immigration enforcement and deportation is to the overall public good. We remind people again and again that the federal administration’s policies have absolutely no legitimate underlying basis. They are all premised on false, dehumanizing narratives that there is some kind of link between being an immigrant and criminality and public safety. No such link exists.
Here in Maine, like elsewhere across the nation, immigration enforcement has ramped up dramatically since the current administration came to power. Noncitizens are targeted broadly and indiscriminately. Again, the rhetoric from the federal government that people who pose a public safety threat are being prioritized in immigration enforcement operations is patently not true. In addition to direct enforcement actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Maine’s state and local law enforcement are actively and voluntarily assisting the federal administration with its agenda.
Since March, ILAP has tracked 23 minor traffic stops in which more than 50 Maine residents or people working in Maine were handed over to immigration officials by Maine’s state and local law enforcement just based on their suspected immigration status alone. These are just the cases ILAP knows about; there’s no way to know the full extent of these incidents in our state. During these traffic stops, drivers, passengers, and even bystanders, victims of car accidents, and children have been handed over. While a minor traffic stop should never turn into a life- and rights-threatening situation for anyone, many of those turned over were identified to be in lawful immigration processes, with valid work permits, and have absolutely no criminal history.
WILLIAM'S STORY
William* is a young asylum seeker, living and working in Portland. He manages an overnight cleaning crew at a local food company that sanitizes food production equipment. He also volunteers regularly at his church, helping run a clothing closet for people in his community in need – citizens and noncitizens alike. He was stopped by local police at a minor traffic stop and then handed over to immigration officers. While ILAP’s team was eventually able to secure his release, William was detained for months and nearly lost everything. His car was impounded, he came within days of eviction, and his life dismantled.
*Name changed to protect identity
Earlier this year, ILAP was among the many advocates who supported LD 1971, a bill that would address this rampant and harmful state and local law enforcement conduct, which was successfully passed by the Maine legislature. The bill puts in place clear and commonsense guardrails to ensure that Maine’s law enforcement focus on their jobs and do not step outside the bounds of their roles and authority to help ICE and CBP target Maine’s immigrant communities. The bill also ensures that jail administrators in Maine do not violate the rights of noncitizens in custody by holding them without cause and handing them over to immigration enforcement officials.
This critical bill is currently sitting on Governor Mills’ desk. When the second half of the 132nd Maine legislative session starts in January — or if there is a special legislative session called — she will have three days to either let this bill become law or veto it.
Right now, our most urgent call to action is for everyone in the ILAP community to reach out to Governor Mills and urge her to let this bill through.
This bill will help protect the rights, safety, and dignity of Maine residents, keep families together, keep workers at their jobs, and ensure that Maine’s resources aren’t being diverted to the federal administration’s cruel agenda.
