Maine’s 132nd Legislative Session

While immigration law and policy is controlled by the federal government, ILAP also identifies and pursues strategies at the local and state levels that can help protect the rights and safety of immigrant communities and help people access legal help.

In our current era of rampant and indiscriminate immigration enforcement, maximizing state and local power to protect people is crucial.

ILAP joined with partners across Maine on a number of key initiatives in the state’s 132nd Legislative Session (2025 – 2026). Here’s more about our work:

LD 1832: An Act to Clarify Available Relief for the Protection of At-risk Children

Summary: Special Immigrant Juvenile classification was created by Congress in 1990 to address the serious child welfare and protection needs of children living in the United States who are victims of parental abuse, neglect, or abandonment, and are made even more vulnerable by the lack of immigration status. The Special Immigrant Juvenile process uniquely begins in state courts, where judges make determinations about a child’s history of abuse, abandonment, or neglect, and whether it is in the child’s best interests to live in the United States. LD 1832 made important updates to the Maine state court process, improving efficiency, ensuring Maine state law is consistent with federal standards, and clarifying confidentiality. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: Passed into law and already in effect.

LD 1259: An Act to Enhance Public Safety in Maine by Defining the Relationship Between Local and Federal Law Enforcement

Summary: LD 1259 sought to ban 287(g) agreements in Maine, a federal program used by the Trump administration to obtain state and local police resources to assist in mass deportation. Because another bill, LD 1971, would ban 287(g) agreements and would take additional steps to protect Maine residents from immigration enforcement, this bill was strategically withdrawn. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: Withdrawn  

LD 1971: An Act to Protect Workers in This State by Clarifying the Relationship of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies with Federal Immigration Authorities

Summary: Maine state police, sheriffs, and local police departments have been playing a major role in federal immigration enforcement in Maine. In 2025, ILAP tracked 22 minor traffic stops where Maine law enforcement handed approximately 50 people over to immigration officers, just based on suspected immigration status alone. Those handed over included not only drivers, but also passengers, bystanders, and even children and car accident victims. Most impacted people were known to be in lawful immigration processes, had valid work permits, and no criminal histories. Maine jails have also been holding people past their release dates on ICE detainers. Detainers are nonmandatory requests made by ICE that have been found to be unconstitutional. 

LD 1971 clarifies that Maine law enforcement may not divert Maine’s resources to assist the federal administration with mass deportation. The law has no impact on law enforcement’s role enforcing criminal and traffic laws. It prohibits them from inquiring into immigration status, detaining people on requests from immigration officers, using immigration officers as interpreters, entering into 287(g) agreements, and more. The law permits Maine law enforcement to participate in joint task forces with federal officers, so long as the primary purpose is not immigration enforcement. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: Passed into law and will go into effect on July 29, 2026.

Year 2: 2026

LD 2051: An Act to Ensure Access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Maine

Summary: The Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” of 2025 made sweeping changes to federal public benefits eligibility. LD 2051 clarified that the federal government’s changes did not impact Maine’s state public benefits. ILAP’s testimony emphasized the chilling effect on immigrant communities accessing state-benefits, and how confusion about law and policy can create loss of efficiency at every level of the system. People being able to meet basic human needs is crucial to being able to navigate the immigration legal system. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: Passed into law and will go into effect on July 29, 2026.

Supplemental Budget: Funding for Civil Legal Aid

ILAP joined other civil legal aid providers in Maine to advocate for maintaining and strengthening baseline funding for civil legal services in the 2026 supplemental state budget. This effort was part of ongoing advocacy by the Justice Action Group to bridge the gap in Maine between civil legal aid needs and access to legal services, with a focus on sustaining the one-time funding received in 2025. ILAP testified about our work in the January 2026 ICE operation, and the critical, ongoing legal issues Maine residents face. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: $2 million was added to baseline funding for civil legal aid, in addition to one-time funding of $3 million.

LD 1822: An Act to Enact the Maine Online Data Privacy Act

ILAP supported efforts to pass the Maine Online Data Privacy Act, given the federal administration’s demonstrated mining of personal and private data to target people for enforcement quotas. In ILAP’s testimony, we spoke about how immigrant communities in Maine use the internet to access legal help (including from ILAP) and how digital profiles could be weaponized against people. As part of our advocacy, ILAP joined the ACLU of Maine and Planned Parenthood of Northern New England in penning an op-ed explaining the stakes and why strong data privacy protections and crucial for all of us. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: Failed

LD 2106: An Act to Limit Consent for Entry into Nonpublic Areas of and to Limit Access to Protected Records Maintained by Certain Public Entities

For decades, versions of federal policy was in place that limited immigration enforcement at certain sensitive locations, such as schools and hospitals. The current Trump administration ended that long-standing, bipartisan policy. Using existing 4th Amendment protections, LD 2106 sought to put in place the strongest possible protections at the state level to protect patrons and workers at public schools, state healthcare facilities, and state libraries from unchecked immigration enforcement. It also directed the Attorney General to develop guidance on how other entities, including places of worship, could protect people at those locations. This bill addressed the widespread chilling effect of the end of the federal protections, with so many people in Maine afraid to send their children to school, access medical care, or go to work at these places. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: Passed into law and will go into effect on July 29, 2026.

LD 2176: An Act to Safeguard Personal Information and Strengthen Tenant Rights in Maine

During the January 2026 ICE operation, there were credible reports of landlords calling ICE to tip them off to noncitizen tenants in their buildings. This legislation was proposed in part to respond to that emergency situation. The bill made it against the law for landlords to share tenants’ personal information as a tactic to harass or evict them. In addition to protecting noncitizens, the bill responded to longstanding needs to better protect the personal information of survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking in housing. Read our testimony here.

Outcome: Passed into law and will go into effect on July 29, 2026.

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