As Cumberland County goes, so go immigrant rights in Maine

More New Mainers live in Cumberland County than any other county in the state. It’s not even close. So to play on an old saying: As Cumberland County goes for immigrant rights, so goes Maine. In Portland, some 34 percent of students are multilingual learners, speaking some 60 languages. Cumberland County will either look the other way as Trump terrorizes our immigrant neighbors, or it will build on the legacy of the Personal Liberty Laws during the days of the Fugitive Slave Act, when the state legislature made it illegal for local police and prosecutors to cooperate in any manner with federal slave catchers. That’s how the Underground Railroad worked in Maine. 

What’s happening now? ICE and Border Patrol are racially profiling, especially, Latino and African workers and disappearing them into concentration camps in Maine and across the country. Only a few of the stories have made the press because so many immigrant families are afraid to speak out. But the stories that have gone public are enough to demonstrate that ICE and Border Patrol are operating outside the Constitution. Nevermind Los Angeles, it’s happening right here in Cumberland County and throughout Maine. 

What is ICE? If it ever had anything to do with something called legality, it’s clear now that Trump’s ICE is the training grounds for an openly–if cowardly, mask-wearing, wannabe–fascist militia. The Big Beautiful Bill will make ICE larger than the FBI, DEA, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.

Why Cumberland County? The Cumberland County Jail is the largest ICE detention facility in Maine. At a meeting with representatives of the No ICE for ME campaign, Sheriff Kevin Joyce reported ICE detentions surging by more than 100% since Trump’s election. He claims he’s powerless to do anything other than follow orders from the Feds. But the contract signed between ICE and the Cumberland County Jail states on the first line that either party can cancel it with thirty days notice. 

This is where the Board of Cumberland County Commissioners (CCC) comes into play. These five elected officials have the power to vote by a simple majority to cancel the contract. Public protests at the last three CCC meetings have grown from 45 in May to 80 in June to more than 125 on July 21. So many people responded to No ICE for ME’s call to give public comment that the board tried to cut it short, refusing to hear from everyone in the meeting room who wanted to speak. That did not go well for the board. 

Board members are in a tough spot. They didn’t run for office in order to draw a line in the sand against a fascist ethnic cleansing campaign. It’s not what they signed up for. But this disaster isn’t what any of us signed up for. Despite tempers flaring at the last board meeting, I believe there is a majority that wants to vote to do the right thing and end the contract. To do so, they will have to follow their better angels by putting aside proceduralism and the public speaking to them in ways they are not accustomed to.

If they do so, a large majority of Cumberland County residents will have their backs. As State Representative Grayson Lookner pointed out at a meeting with members of the board and the sheriff, a large majority of Cumberland County elected officials in the legislature voted for LD 1971, which prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE. Putting that into practice in Cumberland County means canceling the contract at the jail. 

If the board drags its feet–they have suggested holding a hearing in late September with a potential vote in October… or later–they will face mounting public protest. But more to the point, every day they delay only extends the county’s collaboration with ICE and the attack on our friends, family members, students, neighbors and fellow workers. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail explained why, under extreme circumstances, well-meaning advice to “wait” just a little longer for justice is no virtue at all. 

No one believes cutting the contract will send ICE running. They have $45 billion for concentration camps. We have to prepare to stop them from building one in northern New England in the coming months. And the best way to do that is to take a stand today in Cumberland County. Not later, not somewhere else, not someone else. Now, here, us. The Board of Cumberland County Commissioners can either be part of that movement, or they can stand in the way. 

For more information about No ICE for ME and how you help, sign up here.

‘#GoodTrouble’ #protesters rally in #BangorME against the #Trump administration

by Annie Rupertus July 17, 2025

"About 200 people gathered on Stillwater Avenue near the Bangor Mall Thursday evening to rally against the Trump administration in honor of the late congressman and civil rights activist #JohnLewis.

"The event was the latest in a series of nationwide protests broadly opposing President Donald Trump’s policies, with '#GoodTroubleLivesOn' events planned in more than 1,500 locations across all 50 states, according to The Guardian.

"More than 20 Maine communities participated in Thursday’s protests. The Bangor event was organized by #IndivisibleBangor, a progressive advocacy group that formed after the 2016 election to oppose Trump’s agenda. Indivisible has thousands of chapters across the country.

"The protest aimed to embody Lewis’s appeal for Americans to get into 'good trouble, #NecessaryTrouble,' in pursuit of #SocialJustice, according to organizer Mary Ann Larson.

" 'People are waking up,' Larson said, noting she was especially concerned about the recently passed budget reconciliation bill and what it will mean for #RuralMaine hospitals and people who rely on #FoodStamps funded by the federal government.

"Thursday’s protest attendees were mostly older adults. Many brought American flags and pro-democracy signs with messages like '#NoKings in America' and 'imagine being afraid of #diversity more than #dictatorship' — similar messaging to the larger 'No Kings' rally last month, which saw more than 1,000 participants in Bangor.

"The group seemed to get mostly positive responses from drivers passing by on the busy Bangor road, who often honked or waved out of their windows at the crowd lined up on the curb between Chick-fil-A and Washville.

"One attendee, artist Bernice Cross, wore a handmade jacket with painted American flag imagery. She drove to the protest from Greenbush in a car she painted with abstract art and #BlackLivesMatter messaging in 2020 in response to the murder of #GeorgeFloyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

"Cross came out because 'I love America,' she said, and in her view, Trump is destroying America and the values it was founded on.

"For Cynthia Purmort and Mary Ann Labue of Cape Cod, who drove down to Bangor from their camp in Willimantic, a desire to defend the Constitution and individual freedoms were key in bringing them out to the protest.

" 'These are desperate times,' Purmort said.

"Many rallygoers also mentioned defending #immigrants as a key issue, with some chanting, 'Hey hey! Ho ho! #StephenMiller’s got to go' in reference to Trump’s #HomelandSecurity advisor.

"Multiple protesters also expressed concerns about the measure approved by the Senate Thursday that would slash funding for #PublicBroadcasting and international aid [#USAID].

"Thursday’s rally was planned to coincide with the five-year anniversary of Lewis’s death.

"He was a key figure in the #CivilRights Movement who spent decades advocating for #RacialJustice and nonviolent #resistance. He is especially known for leading over 600 voting rights protesters on an #Alabama march from #SelmaToMontgomery in 1965 that is widely credited with spurring the passage of the landmark #VotingRightsAct.

"Alabama state troopers attacked the nonviolent marchers on Selma’s #EdmundPettusBridge and fractured Lewis’s skull, but he survived and later was elected to represent an Atlanta district in the U.S. Congress in 1986, serving until he died of pancreatic cancer in 2020."

Source:
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2025/07/17/bangor/bangor-culture/john-lewis-good-trouble-rally-bangor-against-trump-administration/

BREAKING: Donald Trump's fascist ICE Director Tom Homan goes on Fox News and essentially boasts that his agents will be racially profiling people and "detaining them" without "probable cause."

And it get's so much worse...

"I've got to get your reaction to this, a Biden-appointed federal judge out in Los Angeles apparently expected today to issue a temporary restraining order halting your lawful operations," said the Fox host. "She says 'I think it's important for the court not burden otherwise lawful enforcement activities, your reaction there?"

He was referring to an expected ruling from U.S. District Court for Central California Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong. Yesterday, the judge indicated that she is inclined to order the Trump administration to halt its unlawful stops and arrests and "roving patrols" of agents that have been terrorizing the city.

"It's happening with people who appear Latino," said Mohammad Tajsar, an attorney for the ACLU.

When asked about the blatantly unconstitutional behavior of his agents, Homan gave a typically disgusting answer—

"Look the thing you got to understand, ICE officers and Border Patrol, they don't need probable cause to walk up to somebody, briefly detain them, and question them," bragged Homan.

"They just need to tally the circumstances right? They just got through the observation, you know... Get our typical..." continued, Homan, mumbling his way through his stream of consciousness. "Our typical facts based on the location, the occupation, their physical appearance, their actions."

The "physical appearance" piece is crucial here. It's not white Americans who are getting stopped, harassed, and denied due process by ICE. It's predominantly Latinos, the vast majority of which are legal citizens. Trump's deportation efforts aren't about upholding law and order, they're a form of soft ethnic cleansing. Republicans want less people of color in this country so that they can entrench white nationalist rule.

"Uh.. A... A... A uniformed Border Patrol policeman walks up to them at, at, for instance a Home Depot and they've got all of these articulable facts plus the person walks away or runs away," Homan continued.

"Agents are trained what they need to, uh, detain somebody temporarily and question them," he went on. "It's not probable cause. It's reasonable suspicion. We're trained on that. Every agent, every six months gets Fourth Amendment training over and over again. These officers are really good at what they do."

These officers are not, in fact, "really good" at what they do. They're poorly trained bullies carrying out a cruel and pointless war against innocent communities. The fact that so many of them hide their faces when conducting these raids demonstrates that on some level they know what they're doing is wrong.

"And if this judge is making a decision that's against what these officers trained and what the law is based upon, then they're going to shut down operation," added Homan. "I think that's their end game. They want ICE to stop doing this. But they base it on the rule of law. They're gonna find out Border Patrol and ICE is doing exactly what they're going to do in accordance with the law."

Let's hope that the judge does shut this operation down. These raids help no one, cause massive amounts of suffering, and exist solely so that Donald Trump can project a strongman person to his base.

When Democrats get back into power, we need to strip this mass deportation apparatus down to the studs. Trump's "big, beautiful bill" allocates $170 billion for immigration enforcement and border spending and funnels an additional $75 billion in extra funding to ICE. We should take all of that money and pump it back into healthcare for the Americans that Trump has kicked off Medicaid.

#BlueCrew #BlueCircleFamily #BluePetPatrol #ProudBlue #antimaga #Resist #TruthWarriors #StrongerTogether #ICE #AbolishICE #ImmigrantRights #ImmigrationPolicy