WATERVILLE, Maine — The City Council voted to ban city employees, including the police department, from cooperating with federal immigration agents.
Debate at the meeting was heated. About a dozen people urged the council to pass the ordinance, while five decried illegal immigration and argued that the city should enable immigration enforcement actions as much as possible.
Councilor Scott Beale, D-Ward 6, introduced the ordinance after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained asylum-seekers in Maine and other cities adopted similar guidance and framed the ordinance as an effort to defend the Constitution.
Sonja Thomas, a Waterville resident, spoke about her positive experiences with the Waterville Police Department, including her history as a victim of domestic abuse and a woman of color. She said it is important for people to feel safe reporting crimes and that she is afraid of ICE.
“I trust our city employees,” Thomas said. “I do not trust ICE.”
Other residents also said they felt afraid of ICE. The residents who spoke in favor of the city cooperating with ICE largely focused on a desire to see the removal of immigrants who are not in the country legally.
Ryan Tibbetts said it would hurt public trust to know that the city was not doing everything in its power to ensure people in the country illegally are deported.
“If people are here illegally they deserve nothing from us,” Tibbetts said.
City councilors first considered the proposal in June.
City solicitor Bill Lee redrafted the ordinance for Tuesday’s meeting to exclude police officers after some councilors argued that state law LD 1971 already prohibits law enforcement from cooperating with immigration enforcement operations unless legally required. The council rejected the amended version of the ordinance in a 5-2 vote, and passed the original ordinance 6-1, with just Councilor Brandon Gilley, D-Ward 1, voting against it.
Councilor Rebecca Green, D-Ward 4, suggested the amendment at a June 2 meeting, but said Tuesday that in light of the killing of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, who was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Biddeford on July 13, she would not support the amendment. Guerrero’s killing has sparked outrage across the state.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Michael Morris, two councilors and several fire and police personnel had to pull extra chairs up for a crowd of around 65 people.
At previous council discussions, Maureen Ausbrook said she opposed the ordinance because she wanted to be sure that the police department could be on the scene of any ICE actions. The ordinance does not prohibit this, but Ausbrook worried it could stop ICE agents from informing Waterville police about enforcement actions, which they are not required to do.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Ausbrook urged councilors to take as long as they need to get the ordinance right, but said that having seen the way ICE has been operating — often wearing masks, no body cameras and driving unmarked vehicles — she wants the city to send a message.
Before the original ordinance passed, Beale said that if parts of it aren’t working, the council can amend it in the future. He urged councilors to pass the original ordinance.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Abigail Pritchard can be reached at apritchard@centralmaine.com.