AUGUSTA — A bill that would restrict state and local law enforcement agencies’ ability to help federal authorities enforce immigration laws received initial approval from lawmakers Tuesday.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Deqa Dhalac, D-South Portland, would still allow state, county and local police to participate in federal task forces and assist federal authorities in criminal investigations, as long as those investigations are not primarily focused on immigration enforcement.

Dhalac’s bill, LD 1971, cleared the House of Representatives in 74-73 vote, with one Democrat joining Republicans in opposition. The Senate later voted 21-14 with Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, joining Democrats in support of the bill. It still faces another round of votes in each chamber before it could be sent to Gov. Janet Mills for her consideration.

The bill comes in response to President Donald Trump’s efforts to fulfill a campaign promise to conduct the largest mass deportation effort in American history. Trump originally said he would focus on violent criminals in the country illegally, but his administration has been detaining people not accused of crimes at worksites and public spaces, and deporting them without due process, sometimes in violation of court orders.

The House spent nearly two hours Tuesday debating two immigration enforcement bills — a Republican measure that would have required law enforcement to assist the administration and a Democratic proposal to set guardrails.

Lawmakers quickly dispatched a bill from Rep. Michael Soboleski, R-Phillips, that would have required law enforcement agencies to assist federal immigration authorities and would have established a process through which people would file formal complaints with the attorney general when a community violates the law.

Soboleski said he presented LD 1656, which was also voted down in the Senate, to get lawmakers on the record.

“This is where we all declare — this is where our votes say who we are,” he said. “Are we going to support Immigration and Customs Enforcement, support ICE, and protect families? Are we going to declare our districts are sanctuary districts?”

Most of the debate focused on a Dhalac’s bill, which as written would prohibit state, county and local law enforcement officers from investigating, interrogating, detaining, stopping, arresting or searching a person solely for immigration enforcement purposes.

The amended version of the bill would still allow those entities to participate in various task forces with federal agencies and to assist federal agents in criminal investigations, including executing warrants and sharing information on suspected criminal activity. Additionally, federal immigration agents could interview someone in custody with a court order and would require an agency to inform someone in custody of any federal detainer requests.

The amended version removed a provision that would have prevented state and local law enforcement agencies from providing office space for immigration enforcement, and another that would have prevented state employees from asking about immigration status.

Republicans accused Democrats of trying to create a sanctuary state, which they said would make Maine a magnet for people who are in the country illegally, jeopardize federal funding and compromise public safety.

“Federal immigration law isn’t an option — it’s the law of the land,” said Jennifer Poirier, R-Skowhegan. “Cooperation between local and federal law enforcement agencies is not about targeting immigrants but about maintaining a coherent system of law enforcement. Undermining federal authority sets dangerous precedent.”

Democrats, however, argued that the bill would ensure Maine’s law enforcement community can use its resources to focus on criminal activity and maintain trust with members of the immigrant community, many of whom, they said, are not going to work or school, or reporting criminal activity to police out of fear of deportation.

Rep. Adam Lee, D-Auburn, said that he’s been critical of his own party’s stance on border security in the past, but he has been “horrified” by the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement program, which has swept up noncriminals and some people who are in the country legally.

“This isn’t about border security anymore — it’s about cruelty,” Lee said. “The executive branch is routinely depriving people of their due process, ignoring the rule of law, ignoring clear and direct judicial orders, absconding those lawfully in this country away from their homes, away from their families, away from their communities where they have worked, lived and thrived. It is terrorizing communities, including my own.”

Rep. Amy Arata, R-New Gloucester, said lawmakers should do nothing.

“It’s not up to us to either compel or prohibit cooperation,” Arata said. “Let’s allow law enforcement to do their job.”

Rep. Dani O’Halloran, D-Brewer, was the only Democrat to speak and vote against the bill, noting that several of her family members are in law enforcement.

O’Halloran, who said she supports immigration and due process, evoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks, noting that a lack of information sharing among federal, state and local authorities prevented agencies from preventing the attacks. She worried that the bill would reestablish those silos.

“LD 1971 goes too far, in my opinion, in tying the hands of those sworn to protect us,” O’Halloran said.