Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 75 people in Maine in June, according to newly released figures from the Deportation Data Project, a group of researchers and lawyers. That’s the highest monthly total since the federal enforcement surge in January.
The Deportation Data Project obtained the federal data through Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, providing a rare, comprehensive picture of ICE activity in Maine and around the country.
After January, ICE averaged about one arrest every day in Maine for several months, roughly in line with last year’s rate.
But since May, that daily average has doubled to two arrests per day.
Lisa Parisio, with Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, said ICE seems to be shifting its tactics.
“They’re really stalking people,” she said. “We are seeing so many arrests of people near their homes. You know, so many people report to us that they were heading out to work, they were heading out to a necessary medical appointment, when ICE arrested them.”
Many of those people, she said, are asylum-seekers who entered the country on a visa.
Since May, 8% of those arrested by ICE in Maine had a criminal conviction, while 74% had no criminal record at all. The rest had pending charges but no convictions.
Advocates say the numbers alone don’t tell the full story.
“Behind every data point is a person, a family, and a community living with fear and uncertainty,” Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, said in a written statement Tuesday. “These numbers show the scale of ICE enforcement, but they cannot capture the tears shed by families torn apart, or the pain community members share with us every day.”
The summer spike in arrests in Maine fits with a national trend, with ICE arresting 49,571 people across the country in July, a new monthly high for President Donald Trump’s second term.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.