LDs 1259 and 1971 would prioritize public safety and ensure local resources are used for local needs – not the president’s mass deportation agenda.
AUGUSTA – The Maine Legislature will hold public hearings today for two critical pieces of legislation to safeguard the state’s public safety resources from being diverted to further the federal government’s mass deportation agenda. LD 1259 would prohibit formal agreements between state and local law enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and LD 1971 would fill crucial gaps by prohibiting other types of activities that ultimately lead to people being handed over to ICE via state resources and support.
The public hearing is scheduled for Monday, May 19, at 1 p.m. before the Joint Standing Committee on Judiciary in State House Room 438. The hearing will be livestreamed here.
Over the past weeks, instances of local law enforcement handing people over to federal immigration officers solely based on their immigration status have surged. There are at least ten documented cases of people who have no criminal record, a valid work permit, and were pursuing a lawful immigration process being taken from their families, communities, and jobs after local police needlessly contacted immigration officers during routine traffic stops.
One of these is Natalie’s* story. Natalie was driving through Oxford County when she saw that there had been a car accident. Concerned for her fellow human beings, she stopped to help. When local police showed up on the scene, they profiled her and inquired into her immigration status and then called immigration officers. Natalie is an asylum seeker in a lawful process. She was held by local law enforcement and then taken by immigration officials from the side of the road and whisked to a detention center on the other side of the country.
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, ACLU of Maine, and Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project urge the legislature to pass these bills.
“When our public safety institutions are used to separate families and detain people who are contributing to our communities and pursuing lawful immigration paths, we betray the values that define us," Ruben Torres, Advocacy, Communications, and Policy Manager, said. “The communities we build, and the justice we uphold, are only as strong as our willingness to protect the most vulnerable among us. Maine must choose to stand on the side of fairness, dignity, and equal protection under the law.”
“With a stated commitment to ‘mass deportation,’ the Trump administration has targeted immigrants and those perceived to be immigrants, regardless of their legal status,” said ACLU of Maine Executive Director Molly Curren Rowles. “The effect on our community has been dramatic, as people with long ties to Maine – including those who own homes and businesses, parents, grandparents, and pillars of our communities – are terrified every day that they may be detained. Our country needs immigration reform that is fair, consistent, and comprehensive. Targeting and terrorizing our neighbors and friends is unjust, unlawful, and wrong, and our limited local resources should never be used to support it.”
Sue Roche, executive director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) said: “The federal government is executing an indiscriminate mass deportation agenda by using public safety and local law enforcement resources, including here in Maine. This has no legitimate underlying public policy purpose and is pinned on a false narrative that there is some kind of link between being an immigrant and criminality. No such link exists. Devastating impacts are already happening across our state including our residents being taken by immigration officers solely because they are immigrants, families being torn apart, businesses losing workers, and much more. Maine must act now to protect the rights and safety of all of us by ensuring local law enforcement resources are spent on actual matters of public safety, and not targeting people based on their immigration status.”
*Name changed to protect identity
