The surge of federal immigration agents into Maine has put the Senate’s most vulnerable Republican, Susan Collins, on the defensive — and in avoidance mode — as she fends off attacks from two Democratic challengers who say she needs to stand up to President Donald Trump.
Collins is used to juggling her party’s increasingly aggressive stances with the politics in her state, which has not voted Republican for president since 1988. But the administration’s decision to send ICE agents into Maine is different from the typical pressure she faces in Washington over whether to support a divisive nominee or vote for a tax package.
Now, as she faces reelection this fall, her state is contending with federal officers arresting people in the streets and potentially sparking the kinds of viral confrontations and controversies that have exploded in Minnesota and elsewhere. The surge, depending on how it unfolds, could create a more partisan atmosphere in Maine, which could hurt Collins’s efforts to appeal to moderates and crossover voters.
Collins didn’t say whether she supported Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents flooding the streets of Portland and Lewiston. Gov. Janet Mills (D), who announced her run for the Senate in October, called for withholding ICE’s funding until it changes its tactics. Mills’s primary opponent, oyster farmer Graham Platner, said he would join protesters in the streets and called for Mills to direct Maine law enforcement to follow ICE agents.
Their initial reactions signal how they plan to position themselves more broadly in a closely watched primary and an even more closely watched general election.
ICE launched its Catch of the Day operation in Maine on Wednesday as it continued a sustained presence in Minnesota that has drawn fierce protests, litigation and, on Friday, a general strike. An ICE agent this month fatally shot Renée Good, 37, in her vehicle in a residential neighborhood in Minneapolis, and many Democrats in Maine have called for resisting ICE in their state.
Immigration was a strength for Trump in his 2024 campaign, but recent polls show voters oppose ICE’s recent activities. In a CBS News survey, 61 percent of Americans said ICE was too tough when it detained people. A Quinnipiac University poll found 57 percent of registered voters disapproved of how ICE was enforcing immigration laws and 53 percent believed Good’s shooting was unjustified.
Collins is the only GOP senator to represent a state that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris won in 2024. She has a long record of appealing to Democrats and independents in addition to Republicans, and she’ll need to do that again to win a sixth term.
Collins did not agree to an interview or answer questions from The Washington Post. In a statement on her website, Collins neither praised nor criticized ICE’s operations in Maine. People in the United States illegally who commit crimes should be deported, she said. Immigrants who are in the country legally should not be targeted by ICE and should seek assistance through advocacy networks if they are improperly detained, Collins said.
Collins called for equipping ICE agents with body cameras and giving them de-escalation training. “At this time of heightened tensions, these steps could help improve trust, accountability, and safety,” she said in the statement.
Mills, in an interview, called on Congress to hold up funding for ICE until it changes its tactics. As the Senate Appropriations Committee chair, Collins should be leading that effort, Mills said.
“How on earth does she let him — Trump — weaponize this agency to instill terror and fear?” Mills said of Collins.
Mills said she has been talking to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and monitoring the lawsuit that officials in his state filed against ICE. She said Trump has “weaponized ICE” but it’s too soon to say if she would sue over its activities in her state.
Mills attended a fundraiser in San Francisco the day the Trump administration launched its operations in Maine. The event did not hamper her ability to respond to ICE, she said. She has been in steady contact with law enforcement at all levels, she said, and last week warned the public that ICE could ramp up enforcement.
The Trump administration, in announcing its increased enforcement in Maine this week, singled out Mills for criticism. “Governor Mills and her fellow sanctuary politicians in Maine have made it abundantly clear that they would rather stand with criminal illegal aliens than protect law-abiding American citizens,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
As governor, Mills last month said she was allowing a law to take effect without her signature that will limit how local and state law enforcement work with immigration authorities. She expressed some reservations about the measure but said she supported it in the face of “horrifying actions” by ICE. She also rescinded a policy by a Republican predecessor that required state law enforcement to provide enhanced cooperation with federal officials on immigration.
Platner in an interview criticized the Trump administration in blunt terms. He called ICE a “political paramilitary group” that is kidnapping people and putting them in “essentially concentration camps.” He accused ICE of murder and said Trump officials are “living out their authoritarian fantasies” based on “nothing but racism and lies.”
Platner, who was in Norway this week with his wife while she received in vitro fertilization treatment, said he would join protests in Maine on Saturday. He said he supports Maine residents tracking the movements of ICE and using whistles to alert the public to agents’ presence, saying that opposing ICE requires both public officials and ordinary citizens.
Platner said the governor should direct law enforcement agencies to follow ICE agents to ensure they’re acting legally. And, he said, Mills should sue to try to limit enforcement activities in Maine.
And Collins should be speaking out forcefully against “a federal agency being used to terrorize Mainers,” Platner said.
Though the issue could hurt Collins, it carries risk for all three candidates. Platner, if he advances to a general election, could turn off moderate voters with his calls to confront officers or if he is seen as too soft on immigration. Mills, as governor, faces the prospect that she could be blamed for an escalation.
Democrats are debating the best way to respond politically. Blue Rose Research, a Democratic research firm, found in video testing that raw eyewitness footage and straightforward reporting on the Minneapolis shooting “drove meaningful increases in Trump disapproval, while ideological or maximalist rhetoric from elected officials often underperformed or backlashed,” according to a Jan. 13 memo obtained by The Post.
Mills has sought to fend off Platner’s more progressive rhetoric by highlighting her willingness to confront Trump. She made headlines last year when, with cameras rolling, she faced off with Trump in the White House over the state’s policies on transgender athletes. “We’ll see you in court,” she said in a clip that quickly spread online.
Another moment like the one in the White House could help her in the June primary, said Jessica Taylor, who analyzes Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. But there are also major risks for Mills if anything goes awry in the state she runs, Taylor added.
The ICE surge could also affect the race for a Republican-leaning House seat in northern Maine. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is not running for reelection, fueling Republican hopes of flipping it as they try to preserve their narrow control of the House. While most of the district is far from Portland, it includes Lewiston, where ICE has been active.
But Republicans view the Senate race as crucial to defending their 53-seat majority. The Senate Leadership Fund, the main Senate Republican super PAC, said this week that it was investing $42 million in the state, with most of the money going toward ads that will begin running in August.
Jason Savage, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, said he considered ICE’s operations “net neutral in an ordinary environment” because voters in the state broadly support law enforcement. But, he said, the agency’s activities are a “net positive” for Republicans “when both of the opponents are acting insane about it.”
Some Democrats have argued that the deployment will hurt Collins.
“Any time the Trump administration is sending ICE into communities and causing chaos, it will put the Republican legislators there — including, in this case, Susan Collins — in a very uncomfortable situation, because they are unable to break with Trump in a meaningful way,” said Lauren French, a spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC, the flagship Democratic super PAC involved in Senate races.
Dan Merica contributed to this report.
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