Trump administration starts immigration operation in Maine

The Trump administration this week started arresting immigrants in Maine as part of a new federal operation targeting the state, the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday.

Two U.S. officials said the operation was intended to target immigrants from Somalia, along with other immigrants. People from countries including Sudan, Guatemala and Ethiopia were swept up on the first day of the operation, according to a department statement.

“We arrested illegal aliens convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the department, said in the statement.

The operation comes after an enforcement surge in Minnesota, which set off protests. Thousands of DHS officers and agents were deployed there, and their actions have come under scrutiny in the wake of the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis this month by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

A number of asylum-seekers from African countries who arrived in the United States during the Biden administration have settled in Maine, joining a Somali population that started arriving there in the early 2000s.

Democratic lawmakers in Maine, including the mayors of Portland and Lewiston and Gov. Janet Mills, who clashed with President Donald Trump last year, have been warning residents of ICE’s plan to focus on Maine since last week. In a video message last week, Mills, addressing federal immigration agents, said, “If your plan is to come here to be provocative and to undermine the civil rights of Maine residents, do not be confused: Those tactics are not welcome here.”

In a news conference Wednesday, Mayor Mark Dion of Portland described the immigrants in his community as “anxious and fearful,” adding, “We believe in their right to be safe and we’ve tried to direct resources their way to support their capacity to stay here in Portland.”

Dion said his early impression was that the operation in Maine would not involve “groupings of agents just patrolling” and that it would instead focus on tracking down certain people “on the basis of an actual court warrant.”

He also warned residents against intervening in ICE’s actions, saying, “The best thing you can do is to be the best possible witness, should the facts that come before you be needed by any future investigation.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.