The Department of Homeland Security says three Maine law enforcement agencies are violating federal immigration law and “endangering lives.”
The city of Portland and Cumberland and Hancock counties were specifically called out on the agency’s website — which falls in line with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that requires DHS to publish a list of communities that “obstruct the enforcement” of federal immigration laws.
Portland Mayor Mark Dion said in a written statement that he has seen the notice indicating the city “may be subject to challenge by federal officials on unspecified questions” about immigration enforcement, but he has yet to receive a formal letter directly from DHS.
He said will not comment until he receives the letter with “specific facts supporting their assertion.”
The list comes five months after leaders in Cumberland and Hancock counties received letters from some of Trump’s advisers warning them they could face legal problems for unlawfully protecting people who may have immigrated illegally, and have been arrested on criminal charges.
At the time, Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said he has never refused to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement and denied being called a “sanctuary” office. He said in an email Friday that the new letter appears to be nearly the same as the notice he received months ago.
Joyce said he expected Cumberland County to appear on the DHS list because he had heard in May that any agency that didn’t sign up for ICE’s 287(g) program, where local law enforcement can be accredited to assist the federal agency, would be considered “uncooperative.”
“We are housing ICE inmates for ICE so I am not sure how it can be claimed that we are not cooperating,” he said in an emailed statement. “With that said, we are not doing the work of ICE because we don’t have the expertise or authority to do so.”
The Cumberland County Jail is currently holding 77 federal inmates for ICE, the sheriff’s office said.
The jail had lost its contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to hold federal inmates in 2022 due to staffing shortages, contributing to the nearly $1 million deficit in the jail budget. But recently, the facility renewed the contract, despite some concerns about the additional stress to corrections staff from housing more inmates.
Last June, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accused jails in both Hancock and Cumberland counties of not fully cooperating with its requests to hold suspects who may be living in the country illegally.
These “detainer requests” ask a law enforcement agency to notify ICE before releasing the suspect from jail and potentially hold them up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release date until ICE can take them into custody and determine whether they should be deported.
Jails in Hancock and Cumberland counties do accept requests from ICE to detain suspects, though leaders for both facilities have said they will not hold the suspects beyond their scheduled release date. The Hancock County Jail administrator did not respond to questions on Friday about the latest federal action.
Portland police leaders have said they take a hands-off approach to immigration enforcement. In an interview this spring, Chief Mark Dubois said that his officers don’t contact ICE for any reason, even if they see a detainer request.
If a person is arrested after committing a more serious crime, Dubois said, officers leave it to the jail or the courts to handle the immigration enforcement process.
In Maine, the first and only police partnership with ICE was put on hold earlier this month after backlash from the community. The Wells Police Department had planned to assist the federal agency through a “task force model.”
Immigrants in the state have expressed fear and uncertainty amid high-profile arrests and detentions for ICE and U.S. Border Patrol ramping up nationwide.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded a peak number of arrests in the past two decades, with 113 people detained in Maine.
Last week, 42 detainees suspected of being in the country illegally were flown from Presque Isle to Detroit, Michigan, for further court proceedings, according to the Houlton sector of the U.S. Border Patrol.
