Following days of unprecedented violence by ICE in our streets, we welcome reports that ICE's dangerous surge operation in Maine is winding down. However, ICE is not leaving the state. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has long been present in Maine, and federal law allows the agency to continue operations and to re-escalate their presence here at any time.
ICE's actions over the past year – from using white supremacist slogans for recruitment to issuing unconstitutional memos – created the conditions that led to their dangerous, indiscriminate, and illegal actions in Maine and Minnesota over the past several weeks. But it wasn’t just during this surge that ICE placed our community in fear. They have abused power and arrested people in Maine in legal immigration processes over the past year.
While the agency has grown exponentially during the second Trump administration, the ACLU has sounded the alarm about the dangers of ICE for decades. In the aftermath of 9/11, the 2003 Homeland Security Act was pitched to increase public safety and national security, and Congress created ICE’s umbrella agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). From its inception, ICE and all of DHS lacked meaningful civil liberties protections (in fact, we called it “constitutionally bankrupt”).
That was not hyperbole. ICE’s cruelty, violence, embrace of racial profiling, quotas, and rhetoric are reminders of the fugitive slave raids of the 1800’s and the ethnic cleansing of Native American communities at the time the country was founded. DHS and ICE have repeatedly demonstrated over the last 23 years that their structure and tactics are a part of this shameful history – across parties and across administrations. They pose great danger not only to the physical safety of everyone in the country, but also to the fabric of our deepest commitments to due process and equal rights under the law.
While we may have stopped some of ICE’s most visible harms in Maine, we can’t lose sight of the need for broad, sustained, systemic change to finally stop these cycles of violence.
While we may have stopped some of ICE’s most visible harms in Maine, we can’t lose sight of the need for broad, sustained, systemic change to finally stop these cycles of violence. The use of brutality and domination in immigration enforcement is just one example of many instances in which this president is seeking to expand his power and authority beyond constitutional limits and far beyond what the majority of American people support.
On Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Senate blocked a bill that would have provided even more funding for ICE, which is already the largest law enforcement agency in the country – with a budget larger than all other federal law enforcement agencies combined and larger than all but 15 militaries. This vote would not have happened without millions of people calling and emailing their senators, showing up to congressional offices, and taking to the streets to make their voices heard.
You made this victory possible. We are so grateful to you, and we need you to stay involved and engaged.
When we recommit to nonviolence, constitutional norms, and equality before the law, we build a future in which our political culture has no tolerance for the tactical use of chaos, terror, or pain. A future in which our children will measure the strength of their nation by the freedom and dignity of all its people.
In the weeks and months to come, we need to continue to move this energy forward. Here's what you can do:
- Contact your members of Congress to demand that ICE funding be cut and that DHS be brought under control and held accountable.
- Learn more about your rights in case you encounter federal agents or want to protest, observe, or record.
- Join the ACLU of Maine as a donor, member, or volunteer.
Your engagement will help us bring cases to hold the administration accountable, support our most vulnerable community members, and build power to safeguard our elections to ensure that every vote is counted this November and beyond.
