Some Maine law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they’re in favor of a proposal that could require federal law enforcement agencies to present probable cause before detaining someone in a county jail.

The bill, LD 2058, follows months of uproar from community advocates who have questioned and in some cases condemned how immigration authorities are using Maine jails.

But how the proposal would work in practice is uncertain. Sponsors of the bill told the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee on Wednesday morning that they’re still working to address outstanding concerns from corrections officials.

Lawmakers and law enforcement officials agree that they want to hold all law enforcement agencies — including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol — to the same standard during the jail intake process.

The original bill proposed by Sen. Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, recommended updating the law to require that jails accept anyone arrested on criminal charges by any Maine law enforcement officer.

But it did not originally specify what jails should do if federal officers come to their doors. That was met with criticism by some sheriffs who say they depend on revenue from federal agencies that pay to use their jails.

Bill sponsors told the committee that they’re working to amend the bill to clarify that federal law enforcement agencies can still use the state’s county jails — so long as they document appropriate probable cause during the jail’s intake process.

Two Maine sheriffs, including the president of the Maine Sheriffs’ Association, testified in support of the bill Wednesday.

When presenting the bill, Talbot Ross pointed to people who aren’t facing criminal charges and have no criminal histories but were arrested and “caught up in a sweep” of ICE enforcement in Maine recently.

“I think that public safety demands transparency by all stakeholders within the criminal justice system. That was not transparency, in my mind,” she said. “So this bill allows the federal government to still do their job, as long as there are criminal charges and there’s probable cause.”

How are the jails being used now?

Eight of Maine’s 15 county jails have agreements with federal agencies like ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service that require those agencies to pay them for each federal detainee held at their facilities. That funding is crucial to many jail budgets.

In Cumberland County, for instance, commissioners in November rejected protesters’ requests to end the county jail’s agreement with ICE. Some commissioners contended that they couldn’t ban ICE from using the facility because of current Maine law, which dictates that county jails must accept anyone arrested by “state or any other law enforcement officers.” They also noted that the contract accounts for $2.5 million of the jail’s annual budget.

Some say the existing law is susceptible to misinterpretation.

Michael Kebede, the policy director for the Maine American Civil Liberties Union, told the committee Wednesday that in the decades since the law was enacted in 1964, law enforcement officers have been arresting more people, including those accused of committing noncriminal violations.

He said he supports the bill because the current law is too broad and doesn’t clarify what the basis of an arrest needs to be for an officer to take someone to a jail.

Even before the Trump administration’s escalated immigration enforcement highlighted the issue, sheriff’s offices in Maine and beyond have faced scrutiny and lawsuits for holding people arrested by federal agencies beyond their scheduled release date.

That’s why some sheriffs said Wednesday that they want to cement a rule in state law that would require federal agencies to report probable cause before using their jails.

What could change?

Penobscot County Sheriff Troy Morton, who heads the state sheriffs’ association, told the committee Wednesday that the bill would need to clarify whether immigration authorities could also detain someone who was arrested on an administrative violation — like being in the country illegally — not a criminal violation.

Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said he’s not interested in holding anyone for ICE who was only accused of an administrative violation.

He said he supports the bill and hopes to work with its sponsors to amend the language to allow jails to support their federal partners, but to “do it in the right way.”

In January, ICE pulled all of its detainees out of the Cumberland County Jail hours after Joyce criticized the agency for its tactics while arresting a county corrections officer.

Both Joyce and Cumberland County Manager James Gailey have said they don’t think ICE will resume use of the jail anytime soon. To make up for the lost payments, Gailey has said, the county would need to collect 14% more tax revenue in the next fiscal year — much higher than the usual 4% to 5.5% increase.

Kebede, of the ACLU, said Wednesday that the bill could be amended to require jails to accept anyone who is facing criminal charges but to allow each county discretion over whether to take federal detainees who are facing only administrative charges.

While that idea isn’t what the organization had originally wanted, Kebede said he felt such a change could satisfy all stakeholders and give county officials a choice about how to collaborate with federal agencies.