Action 105 Don’t ICE ME!
Background: Maine before 1920 had a beneficial global trade in ice harvested from our frozen lakes and sent to far flung places around the globe. Historians will lament that Maine must now have a very different relationship with ice’s acronymical successor, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the Department of Homeland Security, which is harvesting human beings and deporting them. Agencies of the United States under Trump are paying foreign countries to imprison people without due process. Maine jails are being used as transfer facilities for those apprehended in Maine and elsewhere. At least one town, Wells, has agreed to cooperate with ICE, although some locals are trying to get that arrangement rescinded. ICE officers have been directed to meet quotas for arrests, and managers are held accountable for failing to do so. Inevitably, a quota system leads to innocent people being rounded up. (If you think about it, quota systems have no business in law enforcement under any conceivable scenario.) ICE’s “287(g) program” enables a state or local law enforcement entity to receive delegated authority, training, and technology resources for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions. They have the authority to arrest individuals deemed a threat to public safety solely on their unlawful immigration status without additional criminal charges. Trump is now bragging about rounding up and deporting, without due process, citizens of the United States. This means Mainers could be snatched off the street and sent to foreign lands. Complying with that intention strikes a severe blow to our Constitution and Rule of Law. We must hold accountable any local official who kowtows to this scheme, for whatever reason.
There are two bills before the state legislature with completely opposite effect:
LD 1259 An Act to Enhance Public Safety in Maine by Defining the Relationship Between Local and Federal Law Enforcement would prohibit state or local law enforcement from entering into cooperative contracts with ICE. The 10 sponsors are all Democrats. A work session was held April 24 in the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee. Committee members who voted to support the bill were Representatives M. Abdi, S. Bunker, T. Hasenfus, M. Lajoie, G. Lookner and N. Milliken, and Senators A. Beebe-Center, and C. Curry. Those voting “ought not to pass” were all Republicans: Representatives D. Ardell, M. McIntyre, R. Nutting and C. Perkins, and Senator S. Cyrway. (bold typeface = Hancock Co)
LD 1656 An Act to Facilitate Compliance with Federal Immigration Law by State and Local Government Entities would prohibit Maine cities and towns from NOT cooperating with ICE. The 10 sponsors are all Republicans. A public hearing was held April 25 with 24 people (or organizations) providing testimony, which you can access through this link: https://legislature.maine.gov/billtracker/#Paper/1656?legislature=132
17 people testified in opposition, including Maine Municipal Association, Maine County Commissioners Association and the Maine Center for Economic Policy. Only 7 people spoke in favor. They included noted Maine right wingers Lawrence Lockman and Rep. Mike Soboleski, and an outfit called FAIR - “Federation for American Immigration Reform” - which lists no address or other contact info on their testimony. It’s based in Washington DC, and has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group with ties to white supremacy. (Perhaps, but at a minimum, this group has been rabidly anti-immigration for decades.)
Action: Contact your legislators and urge them to vote NO on LD 1656 and YES on LD 1259, should either of these bills make it to the floor for a vote. If you get a chance, contact the other legislators named above and tell them what you think (links to legislators at the end of Extra Credit). Testimony on LD 1656, linked above, is particularly useful in creating your talking points. Also browse through the articles under Extra Credit. Write a letter to the editor. Watch the news for judicial decisions which hopefully will have the effect of restoring due process. Find out what you can do to help your justifiably terrified friends and acquaintances – some resources are listed under Extra Credit.
Urgency: It’s been noted that Trump and his Project 2025 henchmen have only a short amount of time – essentially before the 2026 elections – to have their agenda implemented with lasting effect. This is why the whirlwind of outrages, everywhere at the same time. We must stop the madness before it takes root irreversibly. In an authoritarian takeover, first they come for the vulnerable populations (trans people, immigrants). Eventually they create a society of snitches, where everyone is afraid of speaking out, and it’s no longer America.
Extra Credit:
>https://mainemorningstar.com/2025/04/28/gop-lawmakers-want-to-make-it-illegal-to-restrict-compliance-with-immigration-enforcement/ (see also article on Wells, linked in this article)
>https://www.themainewire.com/2025/05/tom-homans-ice-turns-39-new-mainers-into-deportees-cbp/
> https://immpolicytracking.org/policies/report-ice-directed-to-increase-arrests-to-meet-daily-quotas/
>https://www.midcoastvillager.com/news/ice-thickens/article_8d2136fe-1060-4fd4-8d03-94e990480338.html
>https://convergencemag.com/articles/how-to-support-immigrant-communities-during-ice-raids/
>https://www.immigrantdefenseproject.org/raids-toolkit/
>https://afsc.org/news/how-allies-can-defend-against-ice-raids/
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_for_American_Immigration_Reform
>https://www.ice.gov/about-ice
>https://legislature.maine.gov/house/house/memberprofiles/listalpha
>https://legislature.maine.gov/senate/senators/9536