ILAP Applauds Rockland Residents and City Council for Passing Ordinance to Ensure City Resources Are Not Used for Federal Administration's Mass Deportation Agenda

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 9, 2025
CONTACT: press@ilapmaine.org 

Rockland, ME – The City of Rockland passed an ordinance and order on December 8 ensuring that the Rockland Police Department and other city resources are not used to assist the federal administration with its mass deportation agenda. ILAP applauds and congratulates the Rockland residents and City Council members who worked for months to put this protection in place for their community.

Lisa Parisio, ILAP’s Policy Director, issued the following statement:

“Since March 2025, ILAP has identified dozens of Maine residents and workers who were handed over to immigration enforcement officers during the course of minor traffic stops — and even traffic accidents — all across our state. This diversion of state and local resources to mass immigration enforcement is a clear and serious threat to the rights and safety of Maine residents and has no legitimate underlying public policy basis. It also creates a larger ripple effect through communities, with people terrified to leave home, go to work, send children to school, seek medical care, or meet other basic needs. On top of that, it destroys public trust, making it so immigrant communities are scared to have any contact with police, even when they need protection or have important public safety information. And the entanglement of state and local police with federal enforcement can expose municipalities to costly litigation.

As was pointed out by many Rockland residents over the course of public hearings, this ordinance provides important clarity to Rockland’s Police Department. It ensures they are able to focus on their jobs of enforcing criminal and traffic laws and protecting public safety and are not put in the position of having to make decisions about civil immigration enforcement in this politically-charged environment.

The passage of this ordinance, along with end of the 287(g) agreement in Wells, and the Maine legislature’s passage of LD 1971 earlier this year, demonstrates the priorities and values of people across the state. This ordinance is another sound rejection of the Trump administration’s agenda, false narratives, and anti-immigrant vitriol and part of the clear, widespread message that Maine’s immigrant communities are cherished and needed. The next step for Maine is for Governor Mills to let LD 1971 become law in January, and ILAP joins people across the state in urging her to do so.”