Maulian Bryant and Bruce King are co-chairs of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Tribal Populations.

In late January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement carried out a concentrated enforcement surge in Maine under a name suggesting the people taken were like lobsters to be trapped and hauled in. In the first week alone, community hotline volunteers reported more than 4,200 calls, logged hundreds of firsthand sightings and confirmed dozens of stakeouts and rapid detentions. According to federal numbers, 206 people were arrested during the two-week operation, part of a broader ICE escalation in Maine and across the country.

January’s enforcement surge is over, but ICE activity in Maine has risen since 2025 and remains ongoing, including recent raids in rural communities. Federal officials haven’t produced proof of any crimes and Mainers are left with unanswered questions about who was taken, why and if they will be allowed to return home.

While state officials push for transparency, what we know already tells us that many of the people targeted were simply here to build better lives for themselves, their families, and our communities.

We know that a majority of immigration detentions in Maine over the last few years targeted immigrants with clean records. We know many of the people taken had valid work permits or pending immigration applications. We know that last year, federal courts failed to stop immigration officers from targeting people based on apparent race, ethnicity or accent.

We know ICE agents shattered a car window when they arrested a Portland man, leaving his wife stranded and their infant covered in broken glass. We know ICE took a Biddeford mother into custody during an early-morning arrest, separating her from her young daughter. Days later, they were reunited, but her immigration case remains pending, and any routine check-in could mean another separation.

When the government can take people off the street without cause, it makes all of us less safe. People stop showing up for work. Workers lose their income overnight and businesses struggle. Families skip meals instead of risking trips to the grocery store, food bank or community suppers. Kids lose access to school lunch because their parents keep them home.

Children notice when armed agents stand near school entrances and classmates stop showing up. Survivors of violent crimes think twice before calling for help. People stop going out altogether. This is how fear reshapes communities. Nearly every aspect of public life becomes more risky, especially for people of color, including Wabanaki people and other tribal citizens, as well as U.S. citizens who are wrongly profiled or simply protesting government oppression.

Maine has faced moments like this before. When the federal government demanded that states help capture and return people escaping enslavement, Maine refused to cooperate. That history matters in a national moment when federal power is again being used in ways that test our values. We have seen this pattern before, and it can help us understand the choice before us.

As federal immigration raids and detentions have increased, Mainers from every corner of the state have trained to protect their neighbors as legal observers, hotline operators and mutual aid organizers. Organizations have helped families cover rent, deliver groceries, buy diapers and meet basic needs in the wake of the harm caused. Thousands of Mainers gathered in freezing temperatures to demand an end to the weaponization of our government against us.

What’s happening in Maine is part of a broader national moment. From Portland to Minneapolis to towns across this country, the same tactics are unfolding and the same question is being asked: Will we let fear define public safety, or will we keep each other safe?

When we choose to protect our neighbors — to show up, to document, to provide food, rent and care — we are not just rejecting fear. We are redefining what safety means. And we are reminding the country that community, not intimidation, is what keeps us safe.