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Kaitlin Callahan and Nate Davis are Rockland city councilors, though the opinions expressed here are theirs alone. Michael Kebede is the policy director of ACLU of Maine.
In January, federal immigration agents arrested more than 200 of our neighbors. It had been two weeks since the enforcement surge, allegedly to target 1,400 immigrants the Department of Homeland Security called the “worst of the worst.” Court rulings told a different story. In case after case, judges ruled the arrests were illegal and ordered detainees released. Dozens returned home, but many more still languish in ICE detention centers.
These detention centers have long been notorious for “rotten food, a lack of access to showers and toilets, and the use of solitary confinement.” A Texas medical examiner recently ruled the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, a Cuban detainee in an ICE facility, a homicide. Campos’s death is one among dozens in ICE custody since October.
Two of us are councilors in Rockland. When those who run our federal government announced their authoritarian plans before achieving power, we believed them. We knew the Constitution was under threat. We knew our neighbors would be in peril. Early last year, our constituents demanded action. We worked with the ACLU to put Rockland on the right side of history.
On Dec. 8, the Rockland City Council enacted an ordinance restricting city staff, including police, from helping ICE and Border Patrol in civil immigration enforcement. Although Portland had enacted an ordinance in 2003 making it illegal for city staff to inquire into immigration status, Rockland was the first municipality in Maine to adopt a law of far greater scope.
Our ordinance, in important respects, mirrors LD 1971. Both allow collaboration with federal immigration authorities whenever a serious crime is involved and immigration enforcement is not the operation’s primary purpose. Both list examples of the types of crimes that would enable cooperation (the ordinance lists “human trafficking, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, or firearms trafficking” and LD 1971 lists “terrorism, drug trafficking, or human trafficking”). Both allow the sharing of immigration status information that is already within the law enforcement agency’s possession.
But our ordinance goes further: it regulates not just police, but all city employees. Importantly, our ordinance took effect on Jan. 8, whereas LD 1971 will not take effect until the middle of the summer. Moreover, should a future legislature repeal LD 1971, our ordinance will still stand.
We felt hope and pride in standing up for our neighbors and for the Constitution. In March, Lewiston became the second Maine municipality to pass this ordinance. We urge you to ask your town, city, and county officials to similarly deny your community’s resources to a lawless federal government.
Since our ordinance became law, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Nicole Good after calling her a “f****** b****.” Any woman who has suffered at the hands of a dangerous man recognizes Ross. Alex Pretti, a nurse who spent his life caring for our most critically ill veterans, was executed on a sidewalk. At least seven people have died in ICE custody in 2026 alone.
Remember the heroes of Maine: Remember Joshua Chamberlain, who risked his life for liberty. Remember Margaret Chase Smith, whose Declaration of Conscience against Joe McCarthy and his enablers is as relevant today as it was in 1950. During the legislative debate about LD 1971, Sen. Craig Hickman reminded us that Maine resisted the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which required local law enforcement to cooperate in capturing and returning runaway slaves. In 1857, Maine enacted a statute requiring “that the district attorneys of each county provide legal assistance in fugitive slave cases” at the state’s expense, prohibiting jails from keeping alleged fugitive slaves, and banning municipal judges from hearing fugitive slave cases. Maine’s law resisting the Fugitive Slave Act was “among the most potent in the country.”
We have wind at our back. Maine has faced down authoritarians before and we can do it again. We are a freedom-loving state. Local leaders, we urge you to follow Rockland’s example and deny your town, city, and county resources to authoritarians.
