U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement is reportedly opening an office in Newport.
Rep. Mike Soboleski, R-Phillips, first announced the forthcoming facility on Wednesday on Facebook, after he completed a tour of the Scarborough ICE holding facility.
“A new ICE facility is under construction at the former Newport District Courthouse and will help the deportation process move even faster,” Soboleski said.
Soboleski did not respond to a request for comment. ICE would not confirm if it is adding a Newport office location, citing concerns of violence against its officers, a spokesperson said.
Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, told the Bangor Daily News that ICE is opening an office at 12 Water St., which previously housed the Newport District Courthouse. Fredette said he confirmed the news with someone who toured the ICE facility in Scarborough earlier this week and from someone connected to the Newport courthouse. Fredette declined to share those people’s names with the BDN.
Other state officials on the tour did not respond to the BDN, or were not part of a conversation about the Newport facility’s planned opening.
ICE’s reported opening of an office in central Maine comes just two months after an ICE agent fatally shot Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in Biddeford, which renewed scrutiny of immigration activity in the state. Immigration enforcement continues to surge nationwide under the Trump administration.
There is a rental tenant for the building, real estate agent Bill Riley said. He declined to say who it is, deferring to Charlie Cox, the building’s owner.
Cox did not respond to a request for comment.
The Newport courthouse closed Jan. 27, 2025, after mold was found in the building, which was previously rented by the state. The ongoing closure forces people from roughly 20 communities to instead complete an hour-long roundtrip drive to Bangor for court appointments.
Mold in the building was remediated, the court system said it was previously told by the landlord.
The building was empty Thursday morning. There were still signs on the building warning people to not bring weapons into a courthouse.
“I see them as any other tenant in our community that will provide economic activity,” Fredette said of the ICE rental in Newport. “I don’t see that as being a bad thing for the community — the fact that there’ll be people there working, buying local food, gas, so in that sense, I’m glad the landlord has a tenant.”