The Trump administration has started an immigration enforcement operation in Maine, targeting Somali immigrants in the state, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the plans.
The decision comes weeks after a similar operation in Minnesota incited protests and raised questions about the tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Thousands of officers and agents from the Department of Homeland Security were deployed there, and ICE’s actions have come under significant scrutiny in the wake of the shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis this month by an ICE officer.
A number of asylum seekers from African countries who arrived in the United States during the Biden administration have settled in Maine, joining a Somali population that started arriving there in the early 2000s, when refugees from the country began settling in Lewiston. Yet Maine remains an overwhelmingly white state, with one of the oldest populations in the country. Some employers have begun looking to immigrants to fill labor gaps, as native-born employees have either left the work force or retired.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Maine telegraphed the upcoming operation in a statement on Monday advising people to protest peacefully.
“In the coming days, if Maine citizens seek to exercise their rights to assemble and protest, it is vital that these protests remain peaceful,” said Andrew Benson, the U.S. attorney in the state. “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.”
On Wednesday, Fox News reported that an ICE official took the network on a ride-along in Maine, describing the operation as targeting people with criminal histories.
“We have approximately 1,400 targets here in Maine,” Patricia Hyde, the ICE deputy assistant director, told Fox News.
A D.H.S. spokesperson said the department did not comment on law enforcement operations.
The Trump administration has put pressure on ICE to ramp up arrests throughout the past year. At one point, White House officials proposed a goal of 3,000 arrests a day — a figure the agency has yet to hit. Despite that, ICE officials have ramped up enforcement across the United States.
President Trump in recent months has particularly focused on Somali immigrants, at one point referring to them as “garbage.”
“When they come from hell and they complain and do nothing but bitch, we don’t want them in our country,” Mr. Trump said in December. “Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.” Mr. Trump also slammed Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat and a Somali immigrant, in his tirade against Somalis.
He has repeatedly brought up the topic since then.
Jenna Russell contributed reporting to this story.
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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