Editor’s note: This Jan. 25 live blog is no longer being updated. Click here for the Jan. 26 updates.
A surge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Maine is unfolding against the backdrop of another fatal shooting in Minneapolis, as members of the community continue to protest the presence of ICE agents in the state.
Six people were arrested in Portland Friday night, where many of the ICE arrests so far have taken place. Another anti-ICE demonstration drew 1,000 people Saturday afternoon in Lewiston, home to much of Maine’s immigrant population and the other primary focus of federal agents’ detention efforts this week.
Read our updates from Saturday here.
Here’s what else you need to know:
- ICE watchers in Maine say they were threatened by federal agents
- 6 arrested during protests near Portland hotels suspected of hosting ICE agents
- Lewiston anti-ICE protest draws about 1,000: ‘It’s scary to see in our backyard’
- ICE detainees removed from Cumberland County Jail after sheriff’s criticism
- The Mainers detained by ICE
- ICE arrests 6 Biddeford, South Portland restaurant workers
- York County corrections officer arrested by ICE outside immigration appointment
- Masked agents detain civil engineer in Portland, leave his car running in the street with a smashed window
- Wife of detainee questions morality of ICE enforcement in Maine
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3:00 p.m. Maine Secretary of State condemns DOJ request in Minnesota for voter enrollment data
Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows says that the state “will never turn over our voter rolls,” after the U.S. Attorney General requested similar data from the governor of Minnesota.
Maine leaders have watched Minnesota in concern, and with criticism, as both states see a surge in activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Attorney General Pam Bondi asked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to share voter rolls with the Department of Justice, “to confirm that Minnesota’s voter registration practices comply with federal laws,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by the New York Times. Bondi also demanded data on the state’s Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as a repeal of “sanctuary policies.”
Bellows, whose office oversees voter registration in Maine, said in a statement Sunday that Bondi’s requests were an unfair condition for pulling ICE agents out of Minnesota.
“Let me say this clearly for President Trump: Maine will never turn over our voter rolls as a ransom payment to get ICE to end its unconstitutional assault on our state,” Bellows stated. “Our founders designed a system where states and local governments, not the federal government, oversee elections to safeguard us from exactly this — a tyrannical, power-hungry president trampling on our constitutional rights. As Maine’s top election official, I stand with Minnesota Secretary of State Simon as we fight back against this dangerous assault together.”
Bellows was sued by the DOJ in September for denying the department access to voter registration lists, which include personal information such as names, birth dates and partial Social Security numbers. The lawsuit is still pending in U.S. District Court, where a judge has scheduled a hearing in March to consider Bellows’ request to dismiss the case.
– Emily Allen
1:42 p.m. Portland schools considering whether to offer remote learning to some young students affected by ICE activities
Superintendent Ryan Scallon said in a statement Saturday that Portland’s Board of Education is evaluating a plan to offer limited remote learning options for elementary and secondary school students, given increased ICE enforcement throughout the state.
The board is expected to discuss the plan at its next meeting on Tuesday.
Scallon said the school district will not completely transition to remote learning, unless it becomes “necessary for safety reasons,” and that being in school is still what’s best for most students.
“This past week has been a tense time for our community as increased immigration enforcement actions started,” Scallon wrote in a letter to parents. “In this time, I continue to be reminded of the power of our community in standing together and for each other. I have seen neighbors looking out for neighbors, PTOs organizing rides and food, and staff providing caring spaces for students. I don’t know how long this reality will last for us, but I know that we will need to continue to rely on each other in this time.”
Scallon said he is aware of more than one parent who has been affected by increased ICE arrests in the area, including Micheline Ntumba, who the Maine Monitor reported on Wednesday was arrested by ICE after bringing her child to school.
Ntumba also worked for the district on its facilities team, Scallon said, after passing a background check and getting permission to work in the country.
“Her detention has hurt our community and left her children with no head of household,” Scallon said.
– Emily Allen
11:40 a.m. Sen. Angus King tells CBS’ Face the Nation he can’t support additional ICE funding after Minneapolis shooting
U.S. Sen. Angus King says he cannot support legislation to offer additional funding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), following the second fatal shooting by a federal officer in Minneapolis this month.
King, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday morning to discuss a recent surge in ICE arrests in Maine.
The Senate is considering a proposal to fund various government agencies to avoid another government shutdown. After a Border Patrol agent shot Alex Jeffrey Pretti in Minnesota on Saturday, Democrats said they plan to withhold support for a proposal to give $64 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, including $10 billion to ICE.
King said he cannot support that proposal “under these circumstances,” although he didn’t discuss the Minneapolis shooting. King’s office said on Saturday they were waiting for more information on what happened.
Republican leaders, including U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, are deciding whether to break up the funding proposal, so senators can vote on the DHS piece separately. Collins chairs the Senate Appropriations committee.
If that were to happen, King said he believes the other provisions “would pass overwhelmingly” and that most of the federal government would not have to shut down.
King and both of New Hampshire’s Democratic senators broke with Democrats in November to vote on a bill that ultimately ended the nation’s longest government shutdown.
King said on Sunday he is aware of roughly 100 people who have been arrested in Maine by ICE so far, in an operation that the Department of Homeland Security says is targeting criminals.
Only about a dozen detainees have been included in ICE’s online list of people with criminal histories, King said.
“What they’re really doing is going after people who are here,” King said on CBS. “They’re asylum seekers, they’re in the process, they have green cards.”
– Emily Allen
10:15 a.m. Catholic priest says parishioners afraid of ICE have ‘not felt comfortable’ coming to church
A Catholic priest in Portland says that multiple parishioners have not felt safe coming to church out of fear that they could be arrested by ICE agents for their immigration status or race.
Father Seamus Griesbach wrote on Facebook Saturday night that “there is no evidence” that ICE agents have been active or planned any enforcement inside of a church building.
Still, Griesbach said, there have been instances in which people have been arrested by ICE while driving to a religious service, or parking near their church.
Other religious organizations have noted the same, and have begun delivering groceries to immigrant members of their communities who don’t feel safe leaving their homes.
Religious leaders have been apprehended by ICE, even before the Department of Homeland Security announced an operation targeting Maine last week.
Griesbach said he’s heard of some warranted arrests, but also others in which people “have been targeted based on their ethnicity or language and treated in inhumane ways.”
Trump signed an executive order last year removing churches from a list of areas that were previously considered sensitive by ICE. Schools and courthouses were also considered protected spaces before last year.
“Our immigration laws and policies have been unjust and broken for decades, and our country’s enforcement of the laws on the books has been ineffective and inconsistent,” Griesbach stated. “The Church has been clear: The weak and disadvantaged who seek a better life in our society deserve a coherent and just immigration system that safeguards national security while at the same time ensuring that those received into this country are able to live with dignity and peace. Let us pray that our elected leaders will step back from simplistic and hostile slogans and attacks and instead do what is truly needed: Acknowledge the damage that this broken system has caused and continues to cause for to so many innocent and vulnerable people and enact meaningful reform that will set us on a path to safeguard and promote human dignity for all in a healthy and just society.”
– Emily Allen
8:50 a.m.: Maine delegation calls for investigation of Border Patrol shooting in Minneapolis
Members of Maine’s congressional delegation are calling for further investigation into the shooting of a man in Minneapolis by a Border Patrol agent.
Federal officials still hadn’t named the agent who shot Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, Sunday morning. This second fatal shooting in Minnesota comes as Maine is also experiencing increased U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
“The incident in Minneapolis is tragic,” said Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, in a statement from his office Saturday night. “This requires an investigation conducted by an independent agency. It is well past time to lower the temperature.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, said in a video statement Saturday she had “a good idea that this will be yet another unjustified killing.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said Pretti approached agents with a gun. Several media outlets say videos from bystanders show Pretti holding a phone.
At a protest in Lewiston Saturday afternoon, Pingree encouraged attendees to continue protesting and recording what they see from ICE, although she acknowledged the potential for danger, referencing the shooting of another Minneapolis woman by ICE earlier this month.
“I know we all do this at great personal risk,” Pingree said in a video from the rally. “When you stand there with a camera in your hand, you take the same personal risk as Renee Nicole Good, who lost her life.”
U.S. Sen. Angus King, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, was still tracking the shooting Saturday afternoon, according to a spokesperson, but didn’t yet have a comment. His staff did not immediately respond to another inquiry Sunday morning.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, also called for an investigation Saturday, as well as body cameras for federal officers.
“This shooting further underscores the importance of equipping federal law enforcement agents with training and body cameras for their safety and the safety of the public,” Collins said in the statement. “I urge protestors to keep space between themselves and law enforcement and not to interfere with operations.”
– Emily Allen