A judge has denied a request for a temporary restraining order from two Maine residents who say federal agents unlawfully threatened them in January while they observed federal immigration enforcement.

Colleen Fagan and Elinor Hilton sued the Department of Homeland Security. According to the lawsuit, federal agents told the women, who were recording videos, that they would be added to a database for “domestic terrorists” and also took photos of them and their vehicles.

Their lawsuit remains pending in U.S. District Court in Portland, where they are seeking class action status to represent any other Mainers who say they have received similar threats.

Fagan and Hilton also asked for the restraining order against DHS barring the agency from collecting or disseminating any of their pictures or biometric data, which the women’s lawyers say was gathered illegally and in violation of their First Amendment rights.

Attorneys for DHS previously argued they have a federal policy in place to protect observers like Hilton and Fagan, and that a review of federal records shows neither woman was added to a database, but photos taken of them by ICE officers still exist.

DHS has also said that it does not maintain a database of protesters or observers.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock wrote in an order Monday that the request from Fagan and Hilton was “too broad” and “likely unenforceable under the law.”

Woodcock wrote that their lawsuit “raises serious constitutional issues that are better aired and resolved on a nonemergency basis.”

Attorneys for DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Protect Democracy, which is representing Hilton and Fagan, said in a written statement that Woodcock’s ruling “recognized that DHS’s treatment of peaceful observers in Maine raises serious First Amendment issues.”

“While we are disappointed that the court didn’t grant the emergency relief we sought at this stage, we look forward to getting answers from DHS on the factual questions the court said need answering.”

Woodcock wrote in his order that Hilton and Fagan have not yet presented evidence of a database tracking protesters and observers. He noted that, in court records, the government has been careful not to “affirmatively assert” that DHS doesn’t run a database, only that neither Hilton nor Fagan was in one.

“To be clear, by rejecting the request for a TRO on this record, the Court is not condoning what the videotapes confirm occurred to both Ms. Hilton and Ms. Fagan in January 2026,” Woodcock wrote. “But there is, in the Court’s view, a significant difference between an agency-wide policy of First Amendment suppression and the actions of a few agents, who are acting contrary to agency policy.”