As the federal government continues a nationwide crackdown on people who have fled hardship and horror around the world, many immigrants who live in Maine are terrified they’ll be snatched off the street, hauled off to a distant detention center and perhaps deported.

Gov. Janet Mills could do something to help them. Her failure to sign a measure known as LD 1971, which passed the Legislature in June and has been sitting on her desk since, makes it more likely that local law enforcement will collaborate with federal immigration agents.

The bill she has declined to sign would bar law enforcement personnel in Maine from stopping, interrogating or detaining anybody solely because of their immigration status. It would also stop Maine police or jails from handing over someone to federal immigration agents unless they have a court order or warrant.

It’s a milder version of the legislation originally introduced, but it would at least send a message to Maine’s newcomers that our state will do what it can to protect them.

How Mills expects to win a Democratic primary for a U.S. Senate seat next year while refusing to take sensible action on this issue — one that has Democrats increasingly riled up — is beyond me.

Her major opponent for the nomination, oyster farmer Graham Platner of Sullivan, has had a clear position on the issue for years. He may lack the experience needed to be a senator, but he’s not wrong on this one.

Back in 2018, in one of those hot-tempered Reddit posts, Platner suggested that opponents of President Trump’s anti-immigrant policies should “fight until you get tired of fighting with words and then fight with signs, and fists, and guns if need be.”

Mills doesn’t need fists or guns to make a difference. All she has to do is let this become law.

Three New England states have already enacted similar laws. There’s no compelling reason for Maine to stand aside.

A Mills spokesperson, Ben Goodman, said last summer that the governor understood  “the motivation behind the legislation,” but worried it was “both overly broad and confusing.”

She may have a point, but so what? It’s a compromise measure that barely passed. It’s not likely to wind up rewritten as a piece of model legislation if lawmakers have to try again. It will just die.

Mills still has a chance to salvage the measure. Letting it become her law without her signature would be gutless, but better than vetoing the bill. A future bill could always improve it.

We have let fear and a ton of misinformation turn the power of the government on some of the most vulnerable people in the United States, people who came here in part because they wanted to live in peace.

A Lewiston state representative, Democrat Mana Abdi, said at this month’s Great Falls Forum at Lewiston Public Library that we are facing “a test of our democracy” as we weigh who belongs here and who doesn’t. 

We need to ace that exam. Whether we’re ordinary citizens or police officers, let’s make certain that Maine lives up to its promise to welcome everyone.

Make the right choice, please, Governor.