PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The Trump administration is now targeting its mass deportation campaign on Maine, a state with relatively few residents in the United States illegally but a notable presence of African refugees in its largest cities.
The Department of Homeland Security named the operation “Catch of the Day,” an apparent play on Maine’s seafood industry, just as it has done for other enforcement surges, like “Metro Surge” in Minnesota and “Midway Blitz” in Chicago.
Reports of a surge in immigration arrests have struck fear in immigrant communities of Portland and Lewiston and prompted backlash from Gov. Janet Mills and other Democrats, including a refusal to help ICE agents obscure the identity of their vehicles by issuing undercover license plates.
Citizens have formed networks to alert neighborhoods to the presence of ICE agents and bring food to immigrants in their homes, and Portland's superintendent said the school district is developing an online learning plan for its students — more than half of whom aren't white. Many businesses have posted signs saying ICE agents aren't welcome.
“While we respect the law, we challenge the need for a paramilitary approach,” Portland Mayor Mark Dion said Wednesday at a news conference where he was joined by other local officials. “This council doesn’t stand apart from our immigrant communities, we stand with them.”
Portland and Lewiston have thousands of residents of African descent, including many from Somalia.
Somali immigration into Maine accelerated in the early 2000s, and the state now has one of the highest percentages of Somali residents in the country. Immigrants and asylum seekers from other countries followed.
Now the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is causing great anxiety in Portland, said city council member Pious Ali, a native of Ghana.
“Our schools have seen about a quarter of immigrants not showing up,” Ali said, and many fear going to work as well: “There are immigrants who live here who work in our hospitals, they work in our schools, they work in our hotels, they are part of the economic engine of our community.”
ICE agents don't need to spread trauma by smashing doors and windows, he said: "The federal government has the ability to contact these people without unleashing fear into our communities.”
Dozens of arrests
The enforcement action is arriving in Maine, a mostly rural state with about 1.4 million residents, as confrontations between ICE and demonstrators continue in Minnesota, where ICE is under scrutiny following an agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good.
ICE didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the agency’s plans for Maine, where U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that increased enforcement began on Tuesday. “We have approximately 1,400 targets here in Maine,” Patricia Hyde, the ICE deputy assistant director, told Fox News.
“We have launched Operation Catch of the Day to target the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens in the state. On the first day of operations, we arrested illegal aliens convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child,” said Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement.
No new undercover license plates
Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a longtime opponent of President Donald Trump, said state officials received a request from U.S. Customs and Border Protection for confidential, undercover Maine license plates and decided against issuing them. The licenses plates are used on unmarked vehicles and Bellows said she wants more assurance they will be used appropriately.
ICE’s use of license plates in other states has raised concerns: Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, a Democrat, issued a warning to ICE agents last year that swapping or altering license plates is illegal.
“These requests in light of rumors of ICE deployment to Maine and abuses of power in Minnesota and elsewhere raise concerns. We have not revoked existing plates but have paused issuance of new plates. We want to be assured that Maine plates will not be used for lawless purposes,” Bellows said.
Bellows has run afoul of Trump and his administration before. In 2023, she sought to remove his presidential candidacy from the state’s ballot, arguing that Trump had engaged in insurrection in violation of the 14th Amendment. More recently, she has refused to hand over the state’s voter rolls to the federal government.
Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request seeking comment, but a top Maine Republican said withholding the undercover plates would jeopardize public safety.
“That really, one, puts us at odds as a state. Puts us at one end of an extreme that we really shouldn’t be on,” Senate Leader Trey Stewart said.
Maine’s top federal prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Andrew Benson joined Democrats in calling for any demonstrations in the state to remain peaceful and civil. Benson, a Trump appointee, warned people to stay out of the agents' way or be prosecuted.
Mayor, governors speak out
Gov. Mills has pushed back, as have mayors, school district leaders and numerous community organizations. Mills said aggressive enforcement actions that undermine civil rights are “not welcome.”
Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline said ICE enforcement has been causing “anxiety, fear or uncertainty” for many.
“There is no evidence of unchecked criminal activity in our community requiring a disproportionate presence of federal agents,” Dion said.
Schools, Democrats call for caution
Portland Public Schools, the largest and most diverse school district in the state, said in a statement Wednesday that it conducted a “lockout” at two schools to prevent anyone from entering the building during the school day Tuesday because of concerns about ICE activity nearby.
“It was quickly determined that there was no threat to our school communities and the lockouts were lifted within minutes. This is an understandably tense time in our community, as reports and rumors of immigration enforcement actions grow,” the district's statement said.
Maine Democrats have condemned the ICE activity.
“The Trump administration has deployed ICE agents to Portland, Lewiston, and possibly other Maine communities. This is not about public safety. It is about fear, control, and political theater,” Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, said in a statement Wednesday.
