Maine, the US\u2019s whitest state, has been shaken by the Trump administration\u2019s immigration crackdown, a crackdown that could threaten Republican control of the Senate in November\u2019s crucial midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents launched \u201cOperation Catch of the Day<\/a>\u201d in the state on 21 January, targeting \u201cthe worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities\u201d, according to the administration.<\/p>\n As critics said the operation had caused \u201cpain and suffering\u201d, <\/a>Senator Susan Collins, a Republican facing a re-election battle this year in a state that voted<\/a> for Kamala Harris in 2024, claimed <\/a>she spoke with Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who told her the operation had ended at her request.<\/p>\n But residents doubt Collins has defanged ICE and say the agency is still making its presence known and causing chaos in the bucolic state nicknamed Vacationland.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone here has any trust that will be lasting,\u201d Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO, a state federation of more than 200 local labor unions in Maine. \u201cYou can\u2019t turn a tiger into a vegetarian.\u201d<\/p>\n Workers and labor unions in Maine claimed ICE is racially profiling people and has created an environment where people of color are under \u201can occupation\u201d impeding their freedom of movement.<\/p>\n A day after ICE launched its operation, Kelli Brennan, a nurse at Maine medical center in Portland, gave a co-worker a ride early in the morning. The co-worker, a naturalized US citizen and person of color, was fearful of traveling alone as an immigrant during the operation.<\/p>\n After they passed a group of ICE agents on the way to work, a vehicle with two ICE officers inside followed them, rolled its window down, with one of the officers calling her a \u201cKaren\u201d for briefly filming with her phone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe exchange from the male driver was, \u2018I\u2019m gonna arrest three more families today, just for you, ha ha ha \u2013 and this evil, sinister laugh,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cWe were both stunned and shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n The DHS did not comment on her experience or other similar reports <\/a>from ICE agents\u2019 behavior toward the public.<\/p>\n Brennan rejected claims from Senator Collins that the operation had ceased.<\/p>\n \u201cICE is still in town. They\u2019re just blending in better. I don\u2019t necessarily believe what Susan Collins says,\u201d added Brennan.<\/p>\n Co-workers and patients remain fearful, and are still being subjected to harassment from ICE officers, Brennan said, citing the case of a father<\/a> who was detained by ICE while on their way to the hospital to bring necessities for their newborn baby.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re banding together, and we\u2019re figuring things out, like rides to work, food, donating paid time off and creating a support system. It\u2019s just crazy we\u2019re having to do this,\u201d she said. \u201cYou feel like you have to protect your patients from the government and it\u2019s just weird.\u201d<\/p>\n Maine has grown more diverse in recent years but remains the\u00a0whitest state<\/a>\u00a0in the US. The state has a small immigrant population of about 56,000 people<\/a>, comprising about 4% of the state population.<\/p>\n A recent report by the Maine Immigrants\u2019 Rights Coalition said ICE detentions in the state substantially increased<\/a> in 2025 from 2024, and said many detainees had no criminal history, even before ICE launched their latest operation in the state, which the agency claimed was targeted at criminals.<\/p>\n On a late Sunday afternoon in January, Derek Ellis, a construction worker and member of Carpenters Local 349, left work to get groceries in Portland, where he witnessed <\/a>a Black woman with a small child screaming after three ICE agents beelined to her car in the grocery store parking lot, stopped her vehicle while she screamed that she was a US citizen and her toddler child in a car seat screamed as she was torn from her car and put in handcuffs.<\/p>\n \u201cI can hear her yelling, \u2018I\u2019m a citizen,\u2019 and they\u2019re just not listening,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cThat was just straight-up racial profiling. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it.\u201d<\/p>\n He also cited a co-worker from Burundi, who he said had \u201cdone everything right\u201d and jumped through hoops to try to secure US citizenship, who has been sheltering in place and missing work due to the ICE operation.<\/p>\n Claims that the ICE operation in Maine has been halted have not filtered through, said Ellis. \u201cI don\u2019t think the local population trusts it at all, because I still don\u2019t see a lot of folks out at the bus stops or just walking the streets at all yet.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been horrific,\u201d said Schlobohm, who noted that ICE operations were a workplace issue, as most detentions occur while individuals are traveling to or from work, or at their work sites. \u201cOver the last two weeks, I would say there has just been a widespread level of fear and outrage that has just touched a lot of different corners of workers\u2019 lives and of the labor movement.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the places where the presence is most intense, it very much feels like what you would understand an occupation to feel like. We have to collectively figure out how to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n The Maine senator Susan Collins in Washington last year. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz\/Reuters<\/p>\n Those responses have included protests, assisting neighbors and co-workers with financial and transportation, support in obtaining groceries or rides to work, fundraising<\/a>, and organizing resistance to push back against ICE, the tactics and behavior, and the mass level of funding and surveillance technology the agency is wielding under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Todd Chretien, an organizer and local high school Spanish teacher in Portland, dismissed claims from Collins about the ICE operation ending, and emphasized the negative economic effects the operation is still having in Maine.<\/p>\n \u201cICE\u2019s impact on the local Maine economy has been devastating. Thousands of workers have been sheltering in place, and hundreds of people have been detained,\u201d said Chretien. \u201cMany of our support staff are either citizens or legal residents with work permits, but the racial profiling was so intense that much of our custodial and support staff was unable to work for a couple weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n He cited the case of Micheline Kabakodi Ntumba, a single mother of four and custodian in the school system in Portland who was arrested by ICE. Ntumba\u2019s daughter told<\/a> the Maine Monitor she has a pending asylum application.A fundraiser <\/a>for Ntumba, a single mother of four, to cover legal fees, has raised over $38,000.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security defended the detainment of Micheline Kabakodi Ntumba.<\/p>\n \u201cOn January 21, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Micheline Kabakodi Ntumba, an illegal alien from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She entered the US on a B-2 tourist visa that required her to depart the US by May 29 2017. She violated the immigration laws of our nation. All of her claims will be heard by an immigration judge,\u201d the spokesperson said. The White House deferred comment to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n Additionally, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security would not confirm or deny suspending the operation in Maine.<\/p>\n \u201cDHS will continue to enforce the law across the country, as we do every day,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n They denied allegations of racial profiling by ICE agents, but then cited the \u201creasonable suspicion\u201d ruling <\/a>of the US supreme court in its use of a stay on a lower court\u2019s order.<\/p>\n \u201cAllegations that ICE engages in \u2018racial profiling\u2019 are disgusting, reckless and categorically false,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cLaw enforcement uses \u2018reasonable suspicion\u2019 to make arrests, as allowed under the fourth amendment to the US constitution. The supreme court has already vindicated us on this position.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson criticized claims and reports documenting negative economic impacts of ICE operations.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s be clear, if there was any correlation between rampant illegal immigration and a good economy, Biden would have had a booming economy,\u201d the spokesperson added. \u201cRemoving these criminals from the streets makes communities safer for business owners and customers.\u201d<\/p>\n They did not answer how many of those 206 individuals detained in Maine by ICE during the operation had criminal records, only citing four undocumented immigrants who they claimed were detained during the op with criminal records, two of which were non-violent records.<\/p>\n Susan Collins\u2019s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n The Democratic frontrunners in the US Senate primary to challenge Collins in November for her Senate seat, Graham Platner <\/a>and Governor Janet Mills<\/a>, have criticized ICE\u2019s tactics in Maine and the harm inflicted by the operation on residents.<\/p>\n Polls <\/a>have shown a close primary race between Platner and Mills. Collins maintaining her seat is crucial<\/a> for Republicans to hold a majority in the Senate.<\/p>\n A recent Morning Consult poll <\/a>showed Collins as the second most unpopular US senator in the US: 54% disapprove of her performance compared with 41% who approve.<\/p>\n