Donald Trump has ordered ICE agents to begin rounding up Somali migrants in Maine as part of the administration’s latest immigration crackdown.
Federal agents are sweeping through the state’s two largest cities, Portland and Lewiston, as the Department of Homeland Security announced ‘Operation Catch of the Day’ on Wednesday.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin announced that agents had arrested multiple individuals on the first day of the operation.
Local officials in Maine’s two biggest cities are warning residents that ICE will begin ramping up its enforcement operations in the next few days.
Meanwhile, the US attorney’s office in Maine warned citizens against impeding ICE agents from carrying out their operation.
‘Anyone who forcibly assaults or impedes a federal law enforcement officer, willfully destroys government property or unlawfully obstructs federal law enforcement activity commits a federal crime and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,’ said Andrew Benson, the US attorney in the state.
Amid outcry from local and state officials, Maine’s Democratic Governor Janet Mills said aggressive immigration enforcement that violates civil rights are ‘not welcome.’
Maine received thousands of asylum refugees from African countries under the Biden administration. A sizeable Somali population has existed in the state since the early 2000s.
The immigration surge comes as thousands of ICE agents face consistent opposition from protesters in Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Renee Good.
The presence of ICE agents in Portland is causing fear across immigrant communities, according to city council member Pious Ali, an immigrant of the West African nation of Ghana.
‘Our schools have seen about a quarter of immigrants not showing up,’ Ali said. ‘There are immigrants who live here who work in our hospitals, they work in our schools, they work in our hotels, they are part of the economic engine of our community.’
‘The federal government has the ability to contact these people without unleashing fear into our communities.’
The immigration enforcement action arriving to Maine, rural state with about 1.4 million residents, suggests the White House is doubling-down on Trump’s mass deportation agenda amid widespread push back.
ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde told reporters that agents made 50 arrests on Tuesday as officials have more than 1,000 targets in the state.
School officials in Portland are also opposing the immigration crackdown by preventing officials from entering campuses.
Portland Public Schools announced Wednesday that it had prevented anyone from entering the buildings of two education facilities over concerns regarding nearby ICE activity.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection have received pushback from Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a longtime opponent of Trump.
Agents requested for confidential, undercover Maine license plates but state officials decided against issuing them, according to Bellows.
Moreover, Trump has called for Somalians to leave the US in a blistering attack on Democratic lawmakers while discussing ICE operations in Minnesota.
‘Minnesota is a very corrupt place and the elections are totally corrupt,’ Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.
‘I feel I won it all three times. Nobody has won it since Richard Nixon. It’s a rigged state. The Somalians vote as one group even if they’re not citizens. They all ought to get the hell out of here. They’re bad for our country.’
