Federal immigration enforcement appears to be on the rise in Maine, immigration rights advocates warned Monday.
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said that there has been a recent increase in reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions and encounters in Maine to the coalition’s Immigrant Defense Hotline.
Mufalo Chitam, the coalition’s executive director, said the increase in reported activity began around Patriot’s Day weekend, roughly three weeks ago. She said reports of arrests have been somewhat sporadic — none one day, up to two or three the next — but more consistent than they have been since the end of the ICE’s January surge of operations in Maine, during which about 200 people were arrested in just a few days.
Data shows the vast majority of the people arrested during the late January surge, which the agency dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day,” did not have criminal convictions or charges, despite officials claiming they were targeting the “worst of the worst” criminal offenders.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not directly answer questions on Monday about whether agents have been making more arrests and how many people have been apprehended in Maine in recent weeks.
“ICE agents uphold our nation’s immigration laws in all 50 states, seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” the DHS spokesperson responded, before listing four members of the department’s “worst of the worst” list who were arrested in Maine.
Chitam said the increase in activity in Maine aligns with an uptick in ICE’s presence across the country, citing a recent USA Today article. Records included in that report show ICE aims to set up more workstations across 40 states, including Maine — specifically in Portland, Scarborough and Caribou.
“That confirms what we’ve been seeing because we were wondering why, all of a sudden, every day or two days there’s an arrest,” Chitam said.
Many of the reports of ICE arrests have come over the weekends, Chitam said, and most have taken place in Lewiston and Greater Portland.
While the number of recent reports to the coalition’s hotline is tame in comparison to the January surge, Chitam said immigrants and advocates should take extra precautions.
For immigrants, Chitam said that includes familiarizing oneself with their rights, keeping immigration documents handy and ensuring family members are aware of where they’re going and when they should be expected home.
During the surge, many advocates volunteered to escort families to and from school and work and to deliver food, as many immigrants avoided leaving their homes alone or at all during the surge in late January.
“People still have to go to work, people still have to go to the hospital or get food,” Chitam said, and it may be time to “adopt some of those practices we were doing during the surge.”
Chitam said the timing of the increase in reported ICE activity is also alarming in itself, as more people will be looking to get outside as the weather grows warmer.
“It just creates a very unsafe summer, and communities may not have the summer that they’ve been looking forward to,” Chitam said. “It was a long winter … hopefully this doesn’t last long.”
For more information on the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and the resources that the network of organizations offers, go to maineimmigrantrights.org.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Drew Johnson can be reached at [email protected].
