Most of the time, the scene outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the small, coastal town of Scarborough, Maine, could be confused for a nature watch in “Vacationland”, the slogan on state license plates.
uncertain
scene → confuse → plates
Birds chirping.
asserted
Birds → chirp → ?
The sound of the breeze moving through the trees.
asserted
breeze → move → trees
But when four Escalades zoom into the ICE facility parking lot on an August afternoon, the group springs out of their chairs, binoculars and clipboards in hand.
asserted
group → zoom → hand
Some rapidly call out license plate numbers, makes and models, while another scribbles the information down.
asserted
another → call → information
This is what monitoring ICE operations looks like in the east coast’s most sparsely populated state: documenting the agency’s unmarked vehicles and keeping a record of detainments – the people arriving for routine appointments or brought in by agents and never seen leaving.
asserted
monitoring → monitor → agents
ICE-watching – following, documenting and alerting neighbors to federal immigration agents’ public activities – is a longtime, constitutionally protected practice that became more popular in response to the Trump administration’s ramping up of violent, on-the-ground immigration-enforcement operations last year.
asserted
that → watch → operations
It particularly drew attention in Minneapolis in January, when neighbors came out in droves to record and interfere as agents pulled people out of cars, off sidewalks and from bus stops.
asserted
agents → draw → stops
Though ICE has shifted to less visible tactics since the start of the year, the number of immigration arrests is higher than ever, including in rural and suburban areas, such as much of Maine.
asserted
number → shift → Maine
ICE observers are still there, too – albeit exhausted and burned out.
asserted
observers → burn → ?
In many of the US’s largest cities, immigrant rights networks count hundreds if not thousands of volunteers, and dozens of neighborhood-based encrypted chats and organizations activate on short notice.
asserted
dozens → count → notice
But in areas like this one in Maine, organizers mobilizing against ICE’s deportation machine are often spread out and strapped for resources.
asserted
organizers → mobilize → resources
The Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition (MIRC), a small non-profit representing more than 100 state-based organizations, estimates it has about 100 trained, regular volunteers on its roster.
asserted
it → represent → roster
Some days, ICE-watching in the state is just three people in lawn chairs scrawling license plate numbers in their notebooks.
asserted
watching → watch → notebooks
“People are trying the best they can – learning and utilizing new skills, and responding to crises in community – and then there’s another one, and there’s another one, and there’s another one,” said Crystal Cron, co-founder and executive director of Presente! Maine, a Latino-led organization that has given out about $200,000 in bond money for immigrants in detention every month since Donald Trump retook office.
asserted
Trump → try → office
But the work is never-ending, she said: “That is what the escalating violence is meant to do – it’s meant to exhaust us and confuse us.”
asserted
it → end → us
Recovering from an ICE surge
ICE-watching efforts in Maine ramped up in January, when the Trump administration launched Operation Catch of the Day, an intense crackdown on undocumented residents named in reference to the state’s $600m fishing industry that’s powered in part by migrant labor.
asserted
that → recover → labor
In a state with a population a third of the size of the city of Los Angeles and where immigrants make up roughly 4% of residents, 100 people were arrested in three days, the majority of whom had no criminal records and were lawfully in the US.
asserted
majority → make → US
Masked agents smashed car windows to abduct drivers, then abandoned the vehicles – and at least once, with a mother and baby inside – on the side of the road; children watched agents detain their parents from their front steps.
asserted
agents → smash → steps
It “shocked the whole system”, said Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the MIRC.
asserted
Chitam → shock → MIRC
“The tactic was much faster than the traditional system that we had envisioned.
asserted
we → envision → that
By the time somebody can call [in a sighting], somebody’s already been picked up.’”
asserted
somebody → call → sighting
Residents and local community groups in the state came together, following ICE vehicles and dropping off groceries for immigrant neighbors too scared to leave their homes.
asserted
Residents → come → homes
The operation lasted for nine days, and soon after, public backlash over ICE violence across the US reached new heights.
asserted
backlash → last → heights
The killing of two ICE observers in Minneapolis sparked widespread protests and intensified scrutiny of the administration.
asserted
killing → spark → administration
Trump replaced Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership, directing ICE to adopt “a little bit of a softer touch”.
asserted
Trump → replace → touch
But while agents have become less visible in public, in Maine they never went away.
asserted
they → become → Maine
In July, an ICE agent killed 25-year-old father Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during a traffic stop in Biddeford, 15 minutes from Scarborough.
asserted
agent → kill → Scarborough
This happened just days after an agent killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas, also during a traffic stop.
asserted
agent → happen → stop
Any illusion of ICE’s “softer touch” was shattered.
asserted
illusion → shatter → touch
Organizers’ ICE-watching hotline received 128 calls the week that Durán was killed, according to MIRC’s Chitam.
uncertain
Durán → watch → Chitam
People in Biddeford once again took to the streets and elected officials demanded an investigation.
asserted
officials → take → investigation
This time, though, already-traumatized and outraged residents felt pushed to the brink, organizers said.
asserted
organizers → traumatize → brink
Many of the state’s immigrants have been effectively sheltering in place for the last nine months.
asserted
Many → shelter → months
“The death of Johan has been devastating, but for us it was not a surprise,” said Cron.
asserted
Cron → say → us
Being hunted in the streets is not new.”
asserted
hunted → hunt → streets
Organizers had been preparing for this moment.
asserted
Organizers → prepare → moment
Last October, the MIRC and other community groups such as the People’s Coalition for Safety and Justice launched their hotline to report ICE sightings.
asserted
MIRC → launch → sightings
The MIRC also built a network of volunteers who could speak the many languages reflected in Maine’s immigrant population – Somali, Haitian Creole, Arabic – coordinated via the encrypted app Signal.
uncertain
who → build → app
Since then, the MIRC’s handful of staffers have been triaging between state offices, other policy organizations and community members – from assisting business owners protecting immigrant employees to lobbying elected officials on what resources they need.
asserted
they → triage → resources
…and 41 more, not listed.
The Aporia
