Two men carrying firearms and a banner reading “Support ICE: Report and Deport” stood at the intersection of Stillwater Avenue and Interstate 95 near the Bangor Mall for around an hour Friday afternoon.
The demonstration came a day after federal immigration agents raided Bangor’s Kobe Ninja House Restaurant and arrested three people, although the men said the timing was a coincidence as they’d planned their demonstration a week earlier.
The two men, Richard Ward of Bangor and Randy Ussery of Portland, had “decided to use this not so hot day utilizing our First and Second Amendment rights” in support of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, according to Ussery.
In the first few months of his second term, Trump has ramped up detentions and deportations of people suspected of being undocumented. Under his direction, ICE has raided workplaces, housing and other locations around the country, sometimes wearing plainclothes and driving unmarked vehicles.
The agency reported earlier this month that it had arrested more than 66,000 people in the first 100 days of the presidential administration.
A spokesperson for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations said Thursday’s arrests in Bangor were part of a “worksite enforcement operation” executed under a federal Rule 41 search warrant.
The spokesperson refused to disclose the names of the three people who were arrested or say where they were being held.
Ward and Ussery said they’d staged a similar demonstration in January, and that they contacted local police beforehand to give them a heads up about their plans.
The pair of demonstrators received mixed responses from cars passing by at the busy intersection. Numerous drivers honked or rolled their windows down to give a thumbs up, while others shouted expletives at the men.
One counterdemonstrator, Caleb Caruso of Bangor, arrived on a bicycle to stand nearby with a cardboard sign reading “f— ICE.”
“I figured I’d counteract a little bit of what they were doing,” he said.