Federal immigration enforcement agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rely on collaboration with local governments to increase the number of people in immigration detention in three key ways:

• By entering into formal contracts with jails, under which the jails agree to detain people for ICE or CBP. These contracts expand the number of people ICE and CBP can keep detained.
• By relying on jail staff to inform ICE or CBP when an immigrant is about to be released from the jail. These communications allow federal immigration authorities to arrive and take the immigrant into custody.
• By issuing detainers. Jails rely on these detainers to justify keeping an immigrant in jail custody when they should otherwise be released, often until ICE or CBP can come to the jail and take the person into immigration custody.

On July 29, 2026, Maine law enforcement will no longer be able to cooperate with these practices, as new legislation limiting how Maine law enforcement can collaborate with the Department of Homeland Security takes effect.

We’re working to make sure Maine’s public has information about how these practices work, and how state and local resources are used to support federal immigration enforcement. Open the menus below to see the results of our records requests.