Live updates: Mills likens ICE agents to ‘secret police,’ while Maine Republicans urge her to tone down rhetoric
Reports of widespread immigration arrests across Greater Portland and Lewiston continued to spread Thursday, the third day of what federal officials have dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day.”
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security officially announced that the operation was underway — the first confirmation from federal officials of an escalation of immigration enforcement that state and local leaders spoke about last week. The DHS spokesperson said the effort is targeting the “worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”
Meanwhile, an 18-year-old University of Southern Maine student was detained in Westbrook, according to his mother, who says her son has no criminal record. And U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was ordered by a federal judge to explain why a Portland resident from Angola who is seeking asylum was detained during a routine check-in at the agency’s Scarborough field office.
Here’s what else you need to know:
- ICE operations confirmed in Maine, targeting ‘criminal illegal aliens’
- ICE detains 18-year-old USM student in Westbrook
- ICE ordered to explain why Portland resident was arrested during routine check-in
- On day 2 of ICE operation, Portland officials decry enforcement tactics
- Is Maine prepared if ICE protests get dangerous?
Our journalists are working to verify sightings and report events as they happen. Have a tip? Fill out this form, reach us on Signal at PressHeraldTips.295 or email [email protected]. Tips are confidential.
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12:30 p.m.: ICE detains driver near USM campus
At approximately 8:33 a.m., two sedans headed north on Deering Avenue pulled across both lanes of traffic, stopping all cars near the intersection with Bedford Street, next to the University of Southern Maine campus.
Seconds later, five ICE agents exited the sedans and removed a man from the car he was driving and detained him, according to a witness of the event and as seen in a video.
Social worker Chrystal Tidenberg, 41, was on her way home to Westbrook after checking in on some friends in Portland who are fearful of increased ICE activity. When traffic stopped and she saw what was happening, she and about a dozen other drivers emerged from their vehicles.
“The girl in front of me immediately stopped. I stopped. The car behind me stopped, and we all hopped out of our cars and started recording,” she said.
Tidenberg said she saw the ICE agents instantly detain the driver without asking him any questions.
“He was completely peaceful, like they pulled him out of his car. They weren’t checking his ID, they weren’t talking to him. They pulled him out. He was compliant as they were pulling him out,” she said.
Tidenberg said the agents shouted at witnesses recording them to get back and held their canisters of chemical spray in a threatening manner.
ICE agents returned to their vehicles and left the scene. One agent also got into the car of the man they detained and drove it away as well, said Tidenberg. She said the whole event took place in less than five minutes.
“It was surreal, disgusting, horrifying. No one deserves to be kidnapped in the morning. He wasn’t doing anything,” she said.
— Sophie Burchell
12:00 p.m.: Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project urges detainees and family members to seek help before out-of-state transfers
Sue Roche, director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Maine, shared information on how detainees and their close contacts can access legal resources.
ILAP created a form for people to request legal help. They must enter contact information for how an attorney can reach the detainee, or a close point of contact.
Roche said it’s important for people to seek help immediately before detainees are transferred out of Maine, “which may happen in as little as a few hours.”
ILAP says it has heard about ICE arrests this week in Biddeford, South Portland, Portland, Westbrook, Lewiston and the ICE facility in Scarborough.
After the Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday they’re targeting as many as 1,400 immigrants in Maine, Roche said most detainees they’re aware of do not have criminal records and are seeking asylum.
“While some of the door-to-door and apartment building raids may be targeted, it is clear the overall operation is anything but targeted,” she said. “People are being racially profiled on the streets and in their cars. As is their playbook, ICE is doing everything they can to inflict maximum cruelty and chaos.”
— Emily Allen
11:50 a.m.: Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office plans news conference about ICE activity
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office has planned a news conference for Thursday afternoon to discuss “recent ICE events.”
The announcement comes after widely-circulated social media videos show the apparent immigration arrest of a corrections employee in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood Wednesday evening.
The Press Herald has not been able to independently verify the circumstances of the arrest, but the man can be heard on video as he is being detained telling agents he worked in corrections for Cumberland County.
The sheriff’s office did not confirm whether the man works for the agency and officials say they are “currently gathering information to better understand what occurred.”
— Morgan Womack
11:29 a.m.: Gov. Janet Mills blasts ICE operations, likens organization to ‘secret police’
Gov. Janet Mills had stark words Thursday for those in charge of the ongoing federal immigration operations in Maine.
The Democratic governor and U.S. Senate candidate criticized the Trump administration for what she said was a lack of communication about the raids, and said she doubted the administration’s stated reason behind them.
“In America, we don’t believe in secret arrests or secret police,” Mills said during a news conference at Portland City Hall.
Mills said although the Trump administration has pledged to go after those with criminal records in the country illegally, she’s gotten reports of raids on individuals who have no such record.
“For the most part, we’re hearing about (the arrests of) people who have not been engaged in criminal activity,” she said.
Mills also said she has not been given information on where arrestees are being held.
See full story here.
— Billy Kobin
11:20 a.m.: House Republican to Democrats: ‘Tone down the rhetoric before people get hurt or killed’
Assistant House Minority Leader Katrina Smith, R-Palermo, urged Democrats to tone down their rhetoric targeting federal immigration authorities “before people get hurt or killed.”
Smith said in a weekly radio address Thursday that Republicans have requested a meeting with Gov. Janet Mills to cool tensions amid a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in Maine, dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day.”
She noted that some people have legitimate concerns about illegal immigration and its impact on housing, schools, health care and public safety.
“We need to sit down together and talk — not past each other — about how Maine moves forward,” Smith said. “Leadership means lowering the temperature, not raising it. And Maine deserves nothing less.”
Smith warned that continuing to suggest that ICE agents are illegitimate, unprofessional and not worthy of disrespect could lead to confrontations like those in Minnesota, where ICE agents shot and killed a protester in her vehicle.
“Let me be very clear: ICE agents are federal law enforcement officers. They take an oath. They operate under federal authority,” Smith said. “And they show up to work knowing that rhetoric alone can make them a target. You can oppose immigration policy without turning the people enforcing the law into enemies.”
Smith said people can peacefully protest and demand accountability and transparency without demonizing law enforcement.
— Randy Billings
10:45 a.m.: Maine Republican Party chair criticizes Democrats for anti-ICE rhetoric
The head of the Maine Republican Party on Thursday sharply criticized state Democrats for “telling Mainers to resist, protest, and interfere with” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — rhetoric that he says is “causing anger, panic, and could lead to violence.”
In a written statement, Maine GOP chair Jim Deyermond singled out Gov. Janet Mills, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, saying that they and their fellow Democrats “are pushing an agenda that will leave Maine people vulnerable to criminal illegal immigrants so they can get attention and campaign donations.”
“They are playing a dangerous game for purely political purposes,” Deyermond said.
He described Platner in particular as “completely unhinged” for his calls to abolish ICE.
Deyermond said Republicans want law enforcement officers to be able to do their jobs “unobstructed by extremist protestors” and in cooperation with local officials.
“We expect peace and respect from all sides as ICE and some excellent local law enforcement agencies work to make our communities safer,” he said.
— Staff report
10 a.m.: Small crowd forms after ICE agents spotted near South Portland restaurant
A small crowd formed near Tres Leches Cake’s Flor, a South Portland Mexican restaurant, on Thursday morning after federal immigration agents were seen nearby.
Witnesses reported seeing two agents parked in the lot behind the Spiritual Renaissance Counseling and Healing Center, an hour after they were seen outside the restaurant.
The restaurant was closed Wednesday and Thursday.
One eyewitness said a black Dodge with New York license plates was parked outside of Tres Leches when he showed up around 8:15 a.m. When more onlookers showed up, the vehicle took off, the eyewitness said.
But then word spread of another vehicle — a white car with New York plates and two agents inside — parked nearby at 884 Broadway.
Bob Peck’s home overlooks Tres Leches, so when he heard cars honking, he threw on his coat and raced out the door. Other residents had a similar idea, forming a crowd of about 20 on the corner of Valley Street and Broadway at 9:15 a.m. Drivers honked as they passed the crowd.
South Portland police Officer Travis Emerson parked his cruiser just beyond the parking lot of the Spiritual Renaissance Counseling and Healing Center. He said he was there to respond to a noise complaint.
Jason Jarvis, the house manager of 884 Broadway, said the excessive noise started around 8:30 a.m., and that he called the police in response to onlookers trespassing on private property after he repeatedly asked them to stop.
The parked vehicle drove off around 9:45 a.m.
— Dana Richie
9:45 a.m.: Senate candidate Graham Platner urges Mainers to ‘actually fight back’ against ICE
Graham Platner, the Sullivan oyster farmer and combat veteran running for U.S. Senate, urged residents to take to the streets and “actually fight back” against immigration officers sent to Maine this week by the Trump administration.
Platner said in a written statement Thursday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have come here to “drag Mainers out of their homes and kidnap them off of our streets, based on nothing but racism and lies,” calling it “disgusting.”
“This is not the time for our leaders to drag their feet or merely express their concern,” Platner said. “Simply saying we will fight back is not enough. We need to actually fight back. That means organizing. It means showing up in the streets. It means holding ICE and this administration accountable.”
At this very moment ICE is dragging Mainers out of their homes, terrorizing communities across the state. They're calling it 'Operation Catch of the Day.'
It is disgusting.
Maine will fight. We will fight for our neighbors and for the people we love.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) January 21, 2026
Platner, who traveled to Norway this month so his wife could receive fertility treatments, said he planned to return to home Friday and “be in the streets” Saturday.
Platner, a political newcomer endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, is locked in a competitive primary against two-term Gov. Janet Mills for the Democratic nomination to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins.
— Randy Billings
9 a.m.: Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, memo says
Federal immigration officers are asserting sweeping power to forcibly enter people’s homes without a judge’s warrant, according to an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement memo obtained by The Associated Press, marking a sharp reversal of longstanding guidance meant to respect constitutional limits on government searches.
The memo authorizes ICE officers to use force to enter a residence based solely on a more narrow administrative warrant to arrest someone with a final order of removal, a move that advocates say collides with Fourth Amendment protections and upends years of advice given to immigrant communities.
The shift comes as the Trump administration dramatically expands immigration arrests nationwide, deploying thousands of officers under a mass deportation campaign that is already reshaping enforcement tactics in cities such as Minneapolis.
Efforts ramped up in Maine this week as well in an effort officials are calling “Operation Catch of the Day.” As of Wednesday morning, ICE agents had made 50 arrests and were targeting hundreds more.
For years, immigrant advocates, legal aid groups and local governments have urged people not to open their doors to immigration agents unless they are shown a warrant signed by a judge. That guidance is rooted in Supreme Court rulings that generally prohibit law enforcement from entering a home without judicial approval. The ICE directive directly undercuts that advice at a time when arrests are accelerating under the administration’s immigration crackdown.
Read the full story here.
