Two Bangor city councilors defended their actions Tuesday after one blasted President Donald Trump and the other stormed out during a tense vote over a proposed ordinance restricting cooperation with federal immigration agencies.
Discourse started to heat up in the city council chambers Monday night when councilor Joe Leonard criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement and President Donald Trump, sparking outcry from the audience.
“This is a criminal organization,” Leonard said of ICE, noting a leaked memo contradicting longstanding restrictions on government searches, family separations and reports that the Trump administration is sending pregnant unaccompanied minors to a single detention facility.
“But I don’t expect our rapist, pedophile, fascist president to take any consideration into this whatsoever. So I will proudly vote in favor of this ordinance,” he said.
Some community members shouted “point of order” and “you work for us” in response to Leonard’s remarks. Councilor Carolyn Fish packed her things and walked out of the room, and about a dozen people followed her.
The Monday meeting marked a dramatic end to discussions that have dragged on for months following January’s federal immigration surge in Maine and highlighted divisions on the council over the city’s relationship to the federal government and how councilors should conduct themselves.
Both councilors said Tuesday that they stood by their actions.
Fish said she felt she needed to walk out in protest of Leonard’s statements, which she thought were unprofessional and amounted to “inflammatory allegations.”
She added that she believes councilors should stay focused on city business during their meetings. “He, to me, misused his seat by going off on a personal, political agenda,” she said.
Fish also noted that she nearly walked out of a previous meeting over similar concerns about Leonard but was asked to stay by Council Chair Susan Hawes. “I did say, if it happens again and the chair doesn’t try to give him an order that I would walk out. And that’s what I did,” Fish said.
While she’s happy with the budget and wanted to stay and vote for it, Fish said she was confident it would pass without her vote and she felt it was more important to show residents that she didn’t condone Leonard’s behavior.
Leonard, for his part, answered “absolutely not” when asked if he felt his conduct crossed a line and said he disapproved of Fish’s decision to leave the meeting.
“She can complain about me all she wants,” he said. “I’ll look forward to running against her in November.”
Both councilors’ terms are set to expire this year, along with councilor Susan Deane. Fish told the Bangor Daily News that she didn’t initially plan to run for reelection but is now reconsidering.
Councilor Michael Beck, who championed the proposed ordinance, noted that city code mandates that all councilors attend every meeting unless they’re sick, out of town or excused by a council vote.
Beck said he believes Fish should have called a point of order and asked Hawes to address Leonard’s conduct rather than leave the meeting.
Fish did not return to the meeting after walking out so did not vote on the ordinance or the city budget, which passed in a 5-3 vote.
“We have an obligation to the city and to the residents to make our voices heard on this budget. That’s what they elected us for,” Beck said.
His proposed ordinance would have barred city employees from working with federal immigration agencies except in situations when it is legally required. It came to a vote following a separate measure the council approved in March directing the city to preemptively comply with a similar but narrower state law that will go into effect in late July.
Beck said it was important to him to try and pass the ordinance because it was broader than the state law in that it would have applied to all city employees, not just police officers.
He also argued that voluntarily sharing information with ICE could open the city up to civil rights lawsuits, pointing to suits like one in Michigan that resulted in a $190,000 settlement in 2019 with a U.S. citizen who was wrongfully detained after a Grand Rapids police officer asked ICE to look into his immigration status. The proposal would have protected the city against such an expense, Beck said.
The measure ultimately failed in a 5-3 vote after Fish left Monday, with councilors Daniel Carson, Wayne Mallar, Angela Walker, Deane and Hawes voting no and Beck, Leonard and councilor Susan Faloon voting yes.
Carson and Walker did not respond to phone calls Tuesday afternoon requesting comment on their votes.
Fish has been one of several councilors opposed from the beginning to Beck’s efforts to restrict cooperation with immigration authorities.
The vote was pushed back several times, most recently on May 27 after Fish made a failed attempt to indefinitely postpone the ordinance, which would’ve effectively killed it.
The ordinance drew divided responses from residents in the room.
Critics questioned whether refusing cooperation with ICE could put a target on the city or said they didn’t believe it was necessary given the new state law.
“Was any analysis done to identify what federal funding was at risk?” resident Philip Henry asked during public comment.
Others, like resident Adam Baker, argued that “you can’t put a price tag on protecting people and human rights.”