A version of this story first appeared in the Morning Update newsletter. Sign up here to receive the Morning Update and other BDN newsletters directly in your inbox.

Happy Thursday!

Many of you are waking up to morning showers today. At least in Greater Bangor those will give way to sunshine later this morning. Temperatures will range from the low 50s up north to the high 60s down south.

We are rapidly reaching peak fall colors in Greater Bangor. If you’ve not yet gone a-peeping, there’s still time. Even if you miss the best color in Penobscot County, the midcoast and Down East Maine have not even begun to peak.

ICE detained a Maine immigrant’s wife, then let him trade places

Excerpts from court records in the case of an asylum-seeker in Maine who was arrested by immigration enforcement agents after offering to swap places with his wife, who had been detained. Credit: Photo illustration by Paul Koenig / BDN

Over the summer, a Maine construction worker named Pedro got a call from his wife. She had been detained by ICE, she said, but they wanted him.

The couple were in the U.S. legally and had broken no laws, but they also had seen that this was no longer any guarantee of safety. Fearing that their 10-year-old son would be left with no caretaker, Pedro offered a bargain: He would turn himself in if they would let her go.

Several hours later, he walked into the Scarborough ICE office and traded places with his wife. 

Why ICE arrested either of them or agreed to the swap remains as unclear and legally questionable as anything the agency has done this year. And what happened to Pedro next was surprising in a different way.

Latest Stories

From the Opinion Page

A sign for the early voting drop box outside Bangor City Hall is pictured Oct. 5, 2020. Credit: Natalie Williams / BDN

“Early voting began in Maine this week. It runs through Oct. 29.”

Editorial: Worried about election interference? Vote now.