Live from Maine as ICE Targets Migrant Communities - with Julia Tilton

Journalist Julia Tilton reports live from Portland, Maine as ICE enter the state and target migrant communities.

To read the Washington Post article referenced in the report, copy and paste the link below:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/01/21/ice-immigration-operation-maine/

Transcript

Jon Bonfiglio 0:00

Hi everyone, welcome back to Latin America Correspondent. Now, those of you who are regular listeners will by now be used to our weekly conversations with Julia Tilton, uh journalist of the daily yonder in the United States, um, where we break down all manner of um issues, relationships, ongoing histories and actualities between the United States and Latin America. Julia is joining me today, but it's a slightly different conversation uh that we're gonna have because Julia is in Portland, Maine, where things have taken something of a turn, I understand. Julia, can you fill us in on what's happening?

Julia Tilton 0:39

Yeah, that's absolutely right. So over the past week or so, social media feeds and and news feeds here in Maine have been flooded with information about increased activity from ICE. And just yesterday, Wednesday, January 21st, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it has launched what it is calling Operation Catch of the Day in Portland, in Lewiston, Maine, which are in the southern parts of the state. Um, before I go into the details, I just want to note here um the incredible dehumanization in that title. Maine, of course, is a state known for um its robust fishing industry. Um, but to make this sort of explicit comparison in the name of that operation between fish and human beings is quite disturbing to me personally. So that was confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security yesterday. Already today, we are seeing ice quite literally on the streets of Portland where I live, and the state has begun to respond. Governor Jeanette Mills held a press conference in the last 48 hours answering reporters' questions about um ICE uh activity in the state. Just to note here, as I've done some digging myself in the past uh 48 hours about all of this, sort of what the political and legal landscape of all of this is for some of our listeners who may uh be watching and keeping up with what has happened when ICE increases its activity in other cities, Minneapolis most recently, um, and the escalating violence and um lawlessness on behalf of law enforcement there. The state of Maine passed a law this past year that limits the um ability of local law enforcement, so state and and local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE, um, or really for with any federal um any federal law enforcement. That law uh is not yet in effect. There's sort of a 90-day waiting period, and so um that restriction on local law enforcement cooperating with ICE won't go into effect until this summer. Um and yet we find ourselves here at the end of January. Additionally, the uh state of Maine's Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which issues driver's licenses and license plates, received reported that it received uh an increase in requests over the past couple of weeks from federal agencies linked to ICE requesting undercover license plates. So in the United States, there are options for law enforcement to have sort of undercover plates that look like you know regular civilian license plates. And then there are specific license plates for law enforcement. Um, and so you know, anyone that lives in the United States that might have encountered sort of an undercover police vehicle that, you know, is maybe painted dark colors, tinted windows, but has sort of a normal-looking license plate. Um, but then of course the blue lights overhead will know what I'm talking about. So the BMV reported receiving some increased requests in these kinds of undercover license plates from, again, federal agencies linked to ICE. They have put a pause on issuing those kinds of license plates, citing a concern for uh public safety in the state. Um, and of course, this is a temporary pause, but just gives listeners some ideas of how the state is responding to this sort of federal control being pushed onto the state of Maine. And so that's sort of where we find ourselves in uh Portland, where I live, and in fact, in my neighborhood, just in a walk uh around the block today, there are certainly signs of increased awareness and uh civil organizing around protecting community members from the often violent and outside of the law practices that immigration and customs enforcement is using. And there are posted signs, um, oftentimes in many languages, alerting people what their rights are if they are um arrested or you know, presented um with uh law enforcement um sort of in front of them, what folks can do, as well as you know, local immigration hotlines. But to me, it's really striking just how quickly this activity has taken the city and really the surrounding areas by storm. There's a really good Washington Post article, which we we should definitely link in the show notes, just comparing the size of the operation here in Maine with previous efforts by the Trump administration to go after what they are deeming sort of the most violent criminals. And we can get into in a second here what the sort of reality is behind the arrests when we look at people that have been detained and uh their criminal records or oftentimes lack of criminal records. But the Washington Post article uh talks about how Portland and Lewiston are by far the smallest metro areas yet to be targeted so clearly by the Trump administration. And so obviously, as a reporter that spends a lot of time thinking about rural areas and parts of the United States that fall outside of large metropolitan areas, it's really interesting to me how Maine has become a target for this kind of heightened ice activity.

Jon Bonfiglio 6:11

Let's cover that in a minute, maybe. My understanding is that um there's already been a number of detentions, but the one in particular, the detention of a Colombian uh civil engineer who's studying at the University of Maine, I think I'm right in saying, has caught your eye in particular and is making waves. Give us a bit of a context of that of that place.

Julia Tilton 6:33

That's correct. And I want to note before I go into the details that this is a developing story. Um, just as of this morning, um, Thursday, January 22nd. Um, local reporting revealed that, yes, a Colombian man was detained by ICE rather forcefully in downtown Portland. He, according to his colleagues, holds a work visa to be in the United States. He's a graduate of the University of Maine. He received his master's degree here in the state and has no criminal record to speak of. So that is sort of getting into what I mentioned earlier: that the narrative from the Trump administration and from the Department of Homeland Security to justify the heightened uh ICE presence in Maine is that the idea is to go after immigrants who have some sort of criminal record. Clearly, that's not the case just in the detentions that have been seen so far. I was listening to a piece of reporting from Maine Public, which is our local NPR affiliate yesterday. And uh they had someone on from the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine who cited some statistics about detentions that have been done so far in Maine. Uh, and less than 20% of those who have been detained actually do have a criminal record. So, again, just sort of gives the lie that criminal history has really anything to do with these detentions. Uh, what struck me about the story this morning and the incident this morning in Portland is just the sheer force by which this individual was detained. He was on his way to work and he was cut off rather abruptly by an unmarked Subaru. What's striking to me about this is that oftentimes in the United States, law enforcement drive American-made cars. So the fact that it was, you know, a foreign car, unmarked, dark tinted windows that cut him off, got out of the car and actually broke his driver's side window. And then, according to eyewitnesses who were on the scene and local reporting that corroborated this, he was dragged out of the car. And there was very little interaction back and forth between the individual and the masked agents that were detaining him before he was put into the car. Uh, his phone, his cell phone was thrown onto the ground and the car drove away. Meanwhile, uh, this individual's car was left running and his bag and keys were still in the vehicle. So that just sort of sheds some light on how exactly these operations are being carried out. Again, there has been very little communication from any sort of federal agency about how folks are being identified to be detained, how they're being targeted, other than the confirmation yesterday that indeed there is an operation underway uh here in Maine.

Jon Bonfiglio 9:25

Yeah, and we've we've said it before, but it's pretty clear that these policies are not just policies of detention, but they're uh deliberate policies which are designed to induce fear and terror among uh communities. Julia, can you just give us a bit of a sense of where the the the makeup of the immigrant populations in Maine or populations of immigrants of international heritage that exist in the state?

Julia Tilton 9:54

Absolutely. So Maine in previous years has been um a resettlement city for refugees. So it has a certain designation where it is a place where when refugees come to this country, they can be uh resettled in Maine. There are a host of community organizations set up to support refugees as they make their new homes here in Maine. Over the last couple of years, really more than a decade actually, there has been a large resettlement of Somali refugees. There also is a Latino population. Many students, as we just noted, the Colombian uh individual who was detained this morning find their academic home at university campuses here in Maine. And so I think as we as we think about why Maine might be a target, there are certainly a number of sort of theories. One that has come up in sort of conversations over the past week um as to why this state in particular might be targeted comes back to um a spat that our governor Jeanette Mills had with President Trump at the beginning of his second term. And so it's hard to know for sure with these things. Of course, there are a whole host of possible reasons, but as we've seen, the behavior um from this president uh certainly uh frustration at our democratic capital D democratic leader could be among the reasons why this state suddenly finds itself uh targeted with this kind of uh activity.

Jon Bonfiglio 11:32

Judy, I just want to say thanks for for joining us. I know it's been a difficult day in in the Northeast. Uh for you and for those around you, but really appreciate it. And um of course talking again in a couple of days more broadly about the ongoing relationship or the fracturing. Uh if it was ever in existence, the fracturing of the ongoing relationship between the US and Latin America. Thank you.

Julia Tilton 11:56

Yeah, I think so.