How Maine’s new laws push back on Trump’s deportation agenda

Maine enacted several new laws during the latest legislative session that aim to counter President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, codifying the pushback from local, community efforts.

There’s a ban on immigration agents entering public schools, state libraries and hospitals without a judicial warrant, and a measure to protect tenants against the disclosure of their personal information. 

Gov. Janet Mills signed both into law last week. And earlier this month, she approved a measure clarifying that jails can refuse to hold people detained solely for a civil immigration violation, paving the way for the Cumberland County Jail to stop holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees. 

Her commitment to these measures contrasted her hedging on a proposal last year to restrict local authorities from carrying out federal immigration enforcement — a measure that, after several months, she ultimately allowed to become law without her signature. 

Together, the new laws “are truly key state-level protections against the Trump administration’s continued high-levels of enforcement in our state,†said Lisa Parisio, policy director of Maine’s Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.

The Trump administration’s tactics were on full display in Maine during a large-scale ICE operation in January, during which federal authorities detained many asylum seekers and other immigrants who were legally allowed to be in the country and who had no criminal records. That included a civil engineer with a work permit in Portland, who has since sued federal agents. 

While that specific operation has ended, immigrant rights groups say they continue to respond to immigration arrests daily. And, for the people who have since been released on bond, many are now grappling with irrevocable changes to their status.

“It’s always tricky to position ourselves in the right way, regulate the right entity and not run afoul of the Constitution,†said Alicia Rea, policy fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.

Rea, other legal groups and local leaders cautioned that the state can only do so much, as immigration law and policy is a federal matter. 

“But,†Rea said, “I think people have really risen to the challenge to find ways to protect Maine people.â€

Protected areas

One of the forthcoming laws is essentially a state-level version of the “sensitive locations†policy that Trump revoked. It uses existing constitutional protections to require immigration authorities to produce a valid judicial warrant to enter non-public areas, with narrow exceptions.

“ICE has demonstrated blatant violations of the Fourth Amendment, disappearing Maine people off the street without warrants signed by a judge,†bill sponsor Rep. Ellie Sato (D-Gorham) said in a statement. “My bill will help provide clearer protections for Maine residents to prevent future overreach.â€

This type of policy had been in effect across administrations of different political parties, including Trump’s first administration. Former President Joe Biden had expanded the definition of “protected areas†and imposed the greatest limits on officer discretion.

“This used to be such common sense policy, such bipartisan policy,†Rea said, “and if you look at the votes, it’s no longer that.â€

All of the new immigration laws were largely passed along party lines, with Republicans opposed. 

Maine’s version of this policy, which Mills signed on Thursday, will specifically prohibit workers at public schools, state libraries and state health care facilities from voluntarily allowing immigration agents into those locations’ private areas or providing them access to records in the absence of a judicial warrant.

The initial proposal also sought to mandate such restrictions for childcare facilities and other hospitals. That’s no longer the case under the forthcoming law, however the measure does provide the option for those facilities and others to adopt such policies. The state attorney general is required to draft and publish model policies and guidance within 60 days of the law taking effect.

“I think it’s really going to be helpful for folks to have a uniform guideline to go from the AG’s advice, instead of just a patchwork of policies out there,†Rea said. 

Protected data

The idea for the law to strengthen tenant rights came about after ICE’s operation in January underscored a weakness in state law: a lack of clear protections against the disclosure or threatened disclosure of tenants’ personal information. 

While the law was a response to immigration enforcement, lawmakers have said the protections are applicable to all Maine renters, including seniors who can be put at risk of scams if their personal information is shared and survivors of domestic abuse who fear being located by a former partner.

The restrictions in the law have several exceptions meant to alleviate concern raised by landlords that the measure would make all evictions illegal, because information such as a person’s name, address and sometimes financial information has to be shared in court proceedings, notices to local law enforcement or with housing authorities. 

The law prohibits landlords from sharing a tenant’s personal information with the intent to harass, threaten, intimidate or evict them — except in response to a judicial warrant or in “exigent circumstances.†Those restrictions also only apply outside of the judicial process outlined in the eviction statute and without a “legitimate business purpose.â€

The new laws won’t officially take effect until this summer, 90 days after the Legislature’s adjournment.

Vote data

Any state-level protection has its limits, given that immigration is a federal matter.  

“We have been working in uncharted waters in many respects,†Parisio said, “examining and advocating for what we can do at a state-level to respond to mass deportation.â€

That has also included local ordinances. 

Some municipalities in recent months amended their city codes to restrict not only police but also city employees from assisting or cooperating with federal agencies in immigration enforcement operations. Rockland and Lewiston have done so, and Portland, Bangor and Waterville are now considering it.  

The ACLU helped draft these ordinances and Rea said the expansion to all employees at the municipal level is key in light of the federal government trying to get voter rolls. 

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has twice rejected the Trump administration’s requests for sensitive voter information, over which the federal government has an ongoing lawsuit. 

“Who holds those in the state of Maine — those are city clerks, town clerks,†Rea said of voter rolls, because Maine elections are run on the municipal level. “We want to protect them and make sure they are trained and they know the right answer when they come knocking.â€Â 

Detentions 

Public opposition campaigns have also honed in on how Maine factors into the overall immigration detention infrastructure in the U.S. 

Unlike many other states, Maine doesn’t have a standalone ICE detention facility. The only ICE facility in Maine, which is located in Scarborough, is an administrative building for routine check-ins with three small, short-term holding cells. This has meant local jails are relied on for detentions.

The federal government pulled all of its ICE detainees from Maine’s largest jail in Cumberland County at the end of ICE’s operation, after Sheriff Kevin Joyce publicly rebuked the detention of one of his corrections officer recruits who he said had a “squeaky clean record.â€

Since last spring, community members have been calling for the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners to remove ICE from the county jail’s longstanding contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to house federal detainees. The board ultimately decided to do so last week — after Mills on April 13 signed into law a measure clarifying that jails can refuse to hold immigration detainees, settling the legal question that had been at the heart of the contract dispute.

However, commissioners and the sheriff noted that the decision doesn’t change the issues many have with ICE’s tactics, nor the larger detention apparatus. Most of the people detained in Maine have been swiftly taken out of state, in some cases as far as Texas. 

“The issue that everyone has needs to be taken up in D.C.,†Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce told Maine Morning Star.