Rev. Norman Allen is minister of the First Parish in Portland, a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

I was honored to be among the 25 clergy who gathered at the Portland offices of Sen. Susan Collins this past Tuesday. I was blessed to be among the nine arrested in an act of civil disobedience.

When we emerged from Cumberland County Jail four hours after being detained, we were encouraged to hear that Sen. Collins had called for a “pause” in Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and that her statement had been released shortly after we were placed in handcuffs and loaded into police vans. It was good news that came at the end of a long, powerful and exhausting day.

And it wasn’t enough.

The murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good are only the most recent and most prominent of eight deaths caused by ICE operations in January alone. And those deaths are only the most obvious in the long list of egregious acts that now shape the lives of our immigrant neighbors.

There’s the separation of children from parents, the fear that keeps students from school and adults in hiding. There’s the loss of employment due to the wise decision to stay home from work. That decision can lead rapidly to loss of income and to housing insecurity for individuals and for families. All of this is the result of ICE operations in Maine, Minnesota and across the country.

It seems clear that ICE actions — and their consequences — are an attempt to destabilize our society. They’re attacks not only on the immigrant community, but on the broad fabric of American life and values. They must be halted altogether — and permanently — not paused.

While the nine of us waited in the senator’s office, surrounded by a team of respectful police officers, I was struck by how well we were being treated. It was a stark contrast to the experiences of our immigrant, asylum-seeking and refugee neighbors who are treated by ICE agents with violence, distrust and disdain. Our position of privilege was crystal clear in that moment. So was our call to act on behalf of those who have less power than we.

As chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sen. Collins holds enormous power. She has the power to end the expansion of funding for ICE, to end government-sanctioned murder, to end the spread of fear across our communities. She has the power to put a stop to the intentional destabilizing of our society, which threatens to distract us from the dismantling of international alliances, rising domestic costs and investigations into the corrupt behavior of our national leaders.

Perhaps most important, Sen. Collins has the power to demonstrate what it means when we live into our values as Americans and as residents of Maine. That means due process, for one thing. It means upholding the United States Constitution. It also means moving through the world with compassion and care for others.

Whether we identify as people of faith — or not — that call to compassion is one we can all hear, if we pause and listen. That’s the pause I urge Sen. Collins to take, a pause to remember who she is, whom she is called to serve and how she can model for her state and her country what it means to be a person who cares.