Each year, we are featured by dozens of local, regional, and national outlets on what changes to immigration laws and policies mean and how they impact Maine’s immigration communities. You can read our recent coverage below.
Members of the press may submit their inquires to press@ilapmaine.org.
More than 50,000 migrants are being held in detention nationwide as part of the Trump administrations mass deportation goals. And the numbers are projected to rise rapidly with the new funding boost for ICE. We examine what has been happening in Maine since January in terms of arrests, detentions, and deportations. Who is being targeted by law enforcement, how many in Maine are affected, and what legal questions are being raised?
Featuring Melissa Brennan, co-legal director of ILAP, as a panelist.
“The reality is people are being essentially disappeared and are picked up roadside and their whereabouts may be unknown for days at a time,” Melissa Brennan, co-legal director of Maine’s Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, told Maine Public. ICE is also executing a deliberate strategy of moving detainees out of state and even out of the country to prevent them from accessing community or legal support, she and others have pointed out.
Black trailblazers in a variety of fields, including politics, justice, education and outdoor recreation, were honored Aug. 1 at the Maine Black Excellence Awards at Caswell Farm in Gray. The annual gathering is the signature event of the Portland-based nonprofit The Third Place, which connects Maine’s Black professionals, students and entrepreneurs to social, professional and economic opportunities.
ILAP executive director, Sue Roche, Esq. also provided further information that Two Bridges Regional Jail (TBRJ) Administrator James Bailey was unable to answer for the original article. Specifically, asked where ICE detainees are sent upon prison release, her reply in a July 24 email stated: "This really depends on the individual case. The Immigration Court in Chelmsford, Massachusetts now has jurisdiction over removal proceedings for individuals who reside in Maine. There is also an immigration court in Boston, but after the Chelmsford court was opened last year, most Maine cases are held in Chelmsford.”
Lisa Parisio, a policy director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Portland, said, “We have tracked 17 minor traffic stops that have happened since March where more than 40 people have been handed over by local law enforcement to immigration officers.” This includes people with valid work permits and no criminal history, she said.
Maine immigration advocates warned that hundreds of people living in Maine to escape wars, gang violence and natural disasters would have faced deportation within weeks had the administration terminated their legal protections.
The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Maine’s only statewide immigration legal services organization, has tracked 17 traffic stops since March 2025 where local and state authorities have handed over at least 35 Maine residents and workers to immigration officers based on their immigration status.
Two Bridges Regional Jail (TBRJ) Administrator James Bailey reported in May, there were 157 inmates housed at TBRJ: 53 from Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties, 53 from Penobscot County, 20 from Knox County, 24 from Waldo County, four U.S. Marshal boarders, 20 ICE boarders, and one from Border Patrol.
Advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP), provide guidance and counseling to those detained and work to restore due process for the immigrant community.
Guests included volunteers, staff, board members, legislators and partner organizations such as Equality Community Center, Greater Portland Health, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project and Maine Needs. Elements of the event resembled a rally, with the Ideal Maine Social Aid & Sanctuary Band playing marching tunes and hundreds of people chanting “Justice for All.
The governor postponed her decision on a bill restricting local authorities from carrying out federal immigration enforcement until next year. Meanwhile, daily U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest rates have doubled in Maine since President Donald Trump took office, new data show.
ICE has arrested about 100 people in Maine since Trump took office, according to statistics released by the Deportation Data Project that shine new light on the agency's operations. That's a roughly 50% increase in the average daily arrest rate, compared to 2024.
The first time I saw the American flag, I was nine years old. My family and I were at the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, preparing to return to Afghanistan after years of fleeing the Taliban and living in exile.
