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.
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Maine – The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project is seeing a drop in new requests for emergency legal help for people arrested by ICE in Maine. We have responded to over 60 requests for help made on behalf of people detained by ICE and are actively fighting to secure the freedom of many of these detained individuals. We hope that ICE’s enhanced operation in our state has ended, but we caution people that an end to the operation does not mean the end of all ICE or Border Patrol enforcement in our state now or going forward.
Gov. Janet Mills and the mayors of Portland and Lewiston say they're bracing for a potential increase in immigration enforcement operations as soon as next week. Details remain scarce, and a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Wednesday the agency does not discuss future or potential operations.
Immigration authorities have rounded up Ecuadorian roofers from Aroostook to southern Maine since Donald Trump took office. The trend provides a window into how the president’s deportation agenda has targeted a community that has quietly shaped the region’s blue-collar economy.
The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project has heard this fear from clients firsthand.
“People are afraid to leave their homes. They are afraid to go to work. They’re afraid to be on the roadways. They are afraid to send their children to school,” Parisio said. “They’re afraid to call the police for help in any situation, whether that’s protection from domestic violence, coming forward about labor exploitation and trafficking, serving as witnesses in criminal cases.”
The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project confirmed to Maine Morning Star that its clients have been denied the right to have their attorneys present at appointments at the field office over the past few months, including during check-in appointments for people who are in immigration court proceedings. Arrests at such proceedings have been reported elsewhere across the country.
Sue Roche with the Maine Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project said the law helps ensure that local police resources aren’t being used to carry out federal immigration enforcement.
"We are really just thrilled about this," said Sue Roche, the executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.
Roche said this will ensure that Maine's resources are being used properly.
"It instructs Maine's law enforcement to focus on the important role of protecting public safety, and not to divert local resources to assist the federal administration in reaching its immigration enforcement quotas," she said.
Sue Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, hailed the Governor's decision, saying in a written statement that it "ensures that Maine’s resources aren’t being diverted to further terrorize individuals and families, rip workers out of their jobs, destroy public trust, and create chaos and fear."
Congresswoman Chellie Pingree visited the facility on Monday, citing at least three complaints since the Trump administration began, in which individuals were prevented from having legal counsel during appointments. Pingree toured the facility alongside Melissa Brennan, a lawyer with Maine’s Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP).
"These check-ins, once considered routine, have become increasingly high-stakes under current immigration policies," said Brennan, who claimed one of her clients was forced to attend his appointment alone after she was denied entry.
Maine Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said key questions remain unanswered after an oversight visit to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Scarborough on Monday. The visit comes amid renewed scrutiny of ICE actions under the Trump Administration.
Lisa Parisio, with the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said many of those arrested posed no threat. "Many of the impacted Maine residents who have been in this situation were in lawful immigration processes, they had valid work permits and they had absolutely no criminal record.”
“This informal assistance is the vast majority of the immigration assistance that we are seeing here in the state,” said Lisa Parisio. There is no centralized tracking method for seeing the full extent of these incidents, according to Parisio.
