Strengthening Due Process in Municipalities: Limiting Cooperation with Federal Immigration Enforcement

Strong due process protections are essential to ensuring every resident can live safely in their community and access local services, regardless of immigration status. This page outlines the process behind Rockland’s adoption of a first-in-Maine ordinance and order, designed to limit local participation in federal immigration enforcement, safeguard constitutional rights, and ensure that local resources are allocated for local priorities.

LD 1971 is set to become law ninety days after the legislature adjourns. Between now and then, localities have no framework governing their officials’ role in immigration enforcement. An order and ordinance like the ones Rockland passed in December 2025 are an important stopgap measure. Once LD 1971 goes into effect, it will set a baseline for due process protections, not a ceiling. Municipalities retain the authority to enact local laws that provide even stronger safeguards for residents, particularly when state law may change in the future or fail to fully protect due process rights.

One way that Rockland’s ordinance does this is by restricting not just police, but all city employees from engaging in certain forms of immigration enforcement. We encourage municipalities hoping to ensure their taxpayer dollars are not used to fund federal immigration enforcement to use the Rockland ordinance and order templates in their towns, cities, and counties to protect their communities while waiting for LD 1971 to become Maine law.

• Monthly Meetings: From June 2025 to December 2025, the ACLU of Maine met monthly with Rockland city councilors and the Rockland police chief to negotiate and edit the language of the ordinance. The Rockland city manager joined the last two of these meetings.
• Order and Ordinance: The ordinance took effect on January 7th, 30 days following adoption. To make the provisions as protective as possible, the Rockland City Council also enacted an order, which took effect immediately. The order directs the city manager to implement policies limiting local involvement in federal immigration enforcement.

Rockland Ordinance #53.pdf

Rockland Order #90.pdf

• Identify elected officials to sponsor this ordinance and order
• Be sure to check your charter and local rules for any procedural requirements, such as how an ordinance is placed on an agenda, when ordinances take effect after passage, and whether the governing body may direct the town or city manager/administrator to create policies applicable to all city employees, among other relevant details.
• Involve local law enforcement in passing the ordinance and order.
  • Refer to the ACLU of Maine’s Public Records project, documenting the informal cooperation currently occurring between local law enforcement and federal civil immigration authorities
• Activate local advocates to show community support where the immigrant community and their families may not feel safe to appear in support of these policies
• Include accountability measures in your draft ordinance and order
  • Suggested language: "In the event a city employee or agent receives a request to support or assist in an immigration enforcement operation, they shall report the request to their supervisor, who shall decline the request, except as provided under section B(5) of this Ordinance, and document the request in a memorandum to the city manager and City Council.
  • On an annual basis, the city manager shall release a public report, in print and on its website, describing the total number of such requests received and, for each request, its nature, the requesting federal agency, the municipal department that received the request, and whether it was declined or granted."