A day after residents across the state reported a noticeable increase in activity by immigration agents, federal officials confirmed a Maine-specific enforcement effort that they have dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day.”
Leaders in the state’s largest and most-diverse cities, Portland and Lewiston, continued to criticize the operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as “terror and intimidation tactics” that threaten families. Many in those communities and elsewhere have documented with photos and videos the arrests and actions by ICE, often by masked agents.
Fox News reported that ICE had identified about 1,400 targets in Maine, and had made 50 arrests as of early Wednesday morning. The Department of Homeland Security later said in a statement the effort is targeting the “worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” citing people accused of committing crimes ranging from aggravated assault to operating under the influence of alcohol.
The department went on to criticize Gov. Janet Mills and “her fellow sanctuary politicians in Maine” for standing in the way of their operations.
Mills, in a statement late Wednesday, didn’t back down.
“If the federal government has warrants, then it should show them,” she said. “But if they are separating working mothers from young children, solely because they sought freedom here and have committed no crime, then the federal government is only sowing intimidation and fear and fostering division and suspicion among neighbors — none of which is welcome.”
Indeed, some residents have reported the detention of family members that have no criminal records.
A Westbrook mother said her 18-year-old son Jean-Pierre Obiang, an accounting student at the University of Southern Maine, was detained by ICE after a minor traffic incident outside the Westbrook Market Basket. Obiang and his mom, Sandrine Koumba, are asylum seekers from the central African county of Gabon, and have lived in Maine for three years. A background check of Obiang through the Maine State Bureau of Identification verified that he does not have a criminal record.
“You flee somewhere because you are being persecuted, and you arrive in a place where you say ‘Oh thank you God, I have arrived here; I am protected,'” Koumba said. “Then you realize that, actually, we are not safe.”
A Portland mom of four from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who also had no criminal record and a pending asylum application, was detained after agents followed her home from dropping one of her children off at Portland High School, the Maine Monitor reported.
Many residents in Portland and Lewiston were on high alert, as ICE agents knocked doors and conducted arrests. Although Maine is still predominantly white, those two cities have welcomed thousands of immigrants in recent years, and many in the state’s Somali community have been here for two decades or more.
A migrant worker in Lewiston who saw ICE agents approaching doors in their neighborhood said fears were high, with many neighbors staying home, locking their doors and ignoring knocks. In Portland’s Parkside neighborhood, residents blew whistles, honked car horns and called the statewide ICE activity hotline when six agents knocked on the door of a residential building, but did not detain anyone.
CITIES, SCHOOLS REACT
Portland city officials, including Mayor Mark Dion, held a news conference Wednesday afternoon and questioned the need for increased immigration enforcement. Dion and City Council members said they had been hearing from frightened and traumatized community members as reports of people being detained in public places mounted this week.
“They see this action as unpredictable and a threat to their families,” Dion said.
“Imagine you are a parent and you step out to put your kid on a school bus, and by the time you turn around you’re surrounded by ICE agents,” added Councilor Pious Ali. “Who is going to take care of that child?”
Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline said the agency’s presence in Maine amounted to “terror and intimidation tactics.”
“These masked men with no regard for the rule of law are causing long-term damage to our state and to our country,” he said in a statement. “Lewiston stands for the dignity of all the people who call Maine home. We will never stop caring for our neighbors.”
Westbrook Mayor David Morse, whose city also has a large number of immigrants, denounced the agency for an incident where he said an agent targeted a U.S. citizen who was peacefully observing an enforcement action, describing it as “outrageous behavior.”
Portland’s school district also announced that it will temporarily suspend off-campus lunches for high schoolers to minimize, “the chance of students being potentially caught up in enforcement actions,” and reported a decrease in student attendance Tuesday, while South Portland’s school board canceled a public forum Thursday because too many families were scared to attend, the board chair said.
Maine’s federal delegation had mixed reactions to “Operation Catch of the Day.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, criticized federal agencies for not sharing any details with members of Congress, while Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, said he supports ICE’s actions as long as the detention efforts focus on people “engaged in criminal activities.”
Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, said individuals in the country legally should not be detained, but also expressed support for some arrests.
“There are people in Maine and elsewhere who have entered this country illegally and who have engaged in criminal activity,” Collins said. “They could be subject to arrest and deportation pursuant to the laws of the United States, and people who are exercising the right to peacefully gather and protest their government should be careful not to interfere with law enforcement efforts while doing so.”
Federal officials have not said how long the operation in Maine will last.
Staff Writers Morgan Womack, Joe Charpentier, Sophie Burchell, Salomé Cloteaux, Dana Richie, Billy Kobin and Daniel Kool contributed reporting.
