Across Maine, local law enforcement actively collaborates with federal immigration enforcement. This collaboration happens at all levels—from Maine State Police to municipal police departments.

Often, it occurs during a traffic stop: police pull over a car, usually for a minor offense like an off-center license plate. Police think that either the driver or a passenger may not be a citizen, and they call ICE or CBP to the scene to take the person into custody.

What happens next is a vast waste of local resources, as officers may spend hours waiting for ICE or CBP to appear. It can also violate the state and federal constitutions when it results in people being held beyond what the Fourth Amendment allows, and when officers use racial profiling to decide who to pull over for low-level traffic offenses. And it instills fear and breaks down trust between immigrant communities and local public safety officials, making all of us less safe.

This type of collaboration has long occurred in Maine, but we've seen an increase as the Trump administration expands federal immigration enforcement. We believe the public is entitled to know when their local government decides to take on the federal government’s work, when they may be breaking the law, and when they use public resources to perform those violations.

Below, see the results of our records requests regarding specific traffic stops, which show that law enforcement routinely detains people for ICE or CBP.