Cumberland County’s district attorney said on Friday that she’s willing to prosecute unlawful use of force by federal agents.

Jacqueline Sartoris said she believes, after studying videos and court decisions from other states, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have different standards and training than local law enforcement.

Sartoris said in an interview Friday that ICE agents “don’t seem to understand that they have limitations under the law.”

“What’s happening is the onboarding for ICE agents seems to be incredibly fast, and I’m not sure what instructions they’re getting about being mindful of people’s civil rights, their own legal limitations, and the need to deescalate and respect people’s basic rights to be free of fear,” Sartoris said on Friday.

A spokesperson for ICE did not respond Friday night to a request to discuss Sartoris’ statements. The agency recently announced it has hired 12,000 more agents over four months.

Sartoris’ comments come after officials and immigration advocates in Portland and Lewiston have said they are bracing a possible surge of enforcement action by ICE. A spokesperson for ICE declined this week to confirm plans for enforcement in the area.

Sartoris said she would prosecute immigration officers who break the law, the same as anyone else. Before 2025, Sartoris said the idea of charging a federal officer would have been unusual.

“We’re going to treat incidents of violations of the law, just the same way as we would for anybody else,” Sartoris said. “If we have the evidence, and we know who it is, we’re going to review for charges. That’s what we do whenever law enforcement files an investigation.”

She said she was exploring, with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, the possibility of an online system where members of the public can upload videos that they believe show illegal use of force by ICE agents.

Sartoris said the bar would still be high for prosecuting federal agents, anticipating they could push a case to federal court or claim immunity — but she added it’s “not impossible.”

“My concern is that I believe that ICE agents have been given the impression that they have absolute so-called immunity, and that they seem to be acting with the idea that they are not accountable with violating the law in the various states where they have been acting,” Sartoris said.

Sartoris referenced a lengthy decision by a federal judge in Chicago in November that found these claims by DHS in Chicago contradicted video evidence from officers and the public, in instances where agents had used tear gas and rubber bullets. That order was appealed, with a spokesperson for DHS defending agents’ actions.

In one Chicago case, federal prosecutors dropped their case against a woman who had been accused of trying to strike a Maine-based Border Patrol agent with her car. That agent, Charles Exum, had shot the woman, who survived. Her attorneys disputed his account, citing video evidence.

In Minneapolis, where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer last week, the local prosecutor has also sought video evidence from the public.

“In place after place, citizens are out doing what they’re allowed to do under the First Amendment: they’re monitoring law enforcement activity,” Sartoris said. “They have good quality videotape that show’s what’s happening … that may be the best evidence at times of what’s actually happening on the ground.”

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