A new immigration enforcement operation is underway in Maine, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin did not say how many arrests were made during the first day of the Maine operation, dubbed “Catch of the Day.” In a statement Wednesday, she only said DHS “arrested illegal aliens convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child.”
On Tuesday, as residents in the cities of Portland and Lewiston noticed a heightened presence of immigration officers in their communities, they began posting videos on social media and calling a community hotline to report the sightings and some arrests.
The hotline, managed by the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, received significantly more calls than usual on Tuesday, Ruben Torres, the organization’s advocacy and policy manager, told NBC News.
On Tuesday evening, the advocacy group said they were only able to verify two of the reports because they didn’t have enough volunteers who could quickly verify all the reports from the hotline.
The two verified incidents “seemed to be very targeted,” Torres said. In one, officers appeared to be serving a warrant to someone at a house, and in the other officers arrested one individual outside a Home Depot.
Reports of immigration enforcement activity around Portland on Tuesday morning led to a brief lockout at two high schools in the area, with the school not allowing anyone to come into the buildings. The lockouts were lifted after it was determined that the activity did not affect the schools, according to NBC affiliate WCSH of Portland.
“It really is a very stressful moment in time,” Torres said. “We have people who are unsure if it’s safe to go out in public because they may get picked up.”
This has resulted in a rise in residents volunteering to do grocery runs and drive children with immigrant parents to school, according to Torres. He added that many families who have relatives with different types of immigration status are also having difficult conversations about who would care for their children if their parents get picked up by ICE.
“Those aren’t fun conversations to be having, especially with one’s children,” Torres said. “They’re laying down the emergency planning at home.”
Immigrants make up about 4% of Maine’s population (compared to 14% nationally) and nearly half of them have been in the U.S. for over 20 years, according to a report from the Migration Policy Institute. Almost half of Maine’s immigrants are from Asia and Europe, 20% from Africa, 19% from Northern America — mainly Canada — and about 10% from Latin America and the Caribbean.
DHS did not say how long the ongoing operation across the state of Maine would last. They stated they’re “targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities.”
Patricia Hyde, deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Fox News in an exclusive interview that they planned on targeting about 1,400 individuals in Maine.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills made statements last week anticipating the incoming ICE activity.
Mills said she directed the Maine State Police “to work closely with local law enforcement, as necessary, to provide whatever support is needed in advance of and during any potential federal operations.”
“I want any federal agents — and the president of the United States — to know what this state stands for. We stand for the rule of law. We oppose violence. We stand for peaceful protest,” the governor said. “We stand for compassion, for integrity and justice.”
