The same day federal authorities launched an immigration enforcement operation in Maine focused on catching the “worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” they detained an 18-year-old asylum seeker with no criminal record who had graduated from high school two years early.
They broke the car window of a tow-truck driver for AAA who has no criminal history, while his wife and 1-month-old son were inside. They had just gone to an appointment to get the baby a passport.
A Cumberland County Corrections officer with a “squeaky clean” record was pulled over in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood and threatened with a Taser as he was whisked away, his car left running on the busy street.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it arrested 206 people between Jan. 20 and 24 under “Operation Catch of the Day,” before Sen. Susan Collins announced Thursday that the enhanced enforcement action had ended. The agency has not responded to repeated requests for a comprehensive list of those it detained during that time.
In order to get a sense of ICE’s mission in Maine, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram analyzed more than two dozen confirmed recent immigration arrests made during the operation, including those reported by other media outlets.
At least a dozen of the known detainees had no criminal records, as verified through background checks, employers and attorneys.
Another 10 — all publicized by federal immigration officials — had past arrests or convictions. They were accused of committing crimes ranging from aggravated assault to operating under the influence of alcohol. One Sudanese native detained by immigration authorities had been convicted of false imprisonment, aggravated assault, assault, obstructing justice and violation of a protective order, DHS said.
The facts of the other cases are not easy to sort out. For example, six restaurant workers were arrested at Kobe Japanese Restaurant locations in South Portland and Biddeford last week. Federal authorities haven’t released their names and a manager declined to name those involved.
Immigration authorities said the enhanced operation was meant to target criminals who have terrorized communities. But local leaders, advocates for immigrants’ rights and the loved ones of those detained say agents are focusing on law-abiding members of the community, too.
Officials with ICE and DHS did not respond to requests for interviews this week, and did not answer questions about why Maine is a focus of enforcement efforts. They also did not say why some people have been arrested here who do not have criminal backgrounds.
According to Collins, the scale of the operation will be reduced, but federal agents will continue their normal enforcement.
Whether their tactics change or not, critics of the raids say the federal government has been disingenuous about its goals.
On Friday, Maine Gov. Janet Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey wrote to federal officials demanding a release of the full list of people arrested in Maine and the legal basis for their arrests, saying the public is entitled to the information.
“Many of these individuals appear to have been here lawfully and to have committed no crimes — contradicting your claims that the Trump Administration is pursuing only the ‘worst of the worst,'” they wrote.
WHO IS BEING TARGETED AND ARRESTED?
In one video circulating on social media in Maine this week, a man tells an agent that a woman being detained is here legally and has a work permit. The agent tells the man that they are taking people into custody “so they can get through their court cases faster.”
“Outside of custody, those court cases take a very long time,” the agent says. “So they’re just trying to rush those things on so we can keep the ones we want to keep and get rid of the ones we don’t want to keep.”
When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement first announced its operation, the agency touted its focus on apprehending “criminal illegal aliens.”
But when announcing the number of apprehensions carried out by ICE agents in the following days, the agency’s statements described the people who were detained only as “illegal aliens,” not criminals — and repeatedly highlighted the same small number of people out of the more than 200 it says were detained over five days.
Those people had been “charged and convicted of horrific crimes including aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child,” said Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The agency said 70% of people arrested by ICE nationwide are “illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.”
The latest data, analyzed by the journalism nonprofit Poynter Institute, show that about a third of people arrested by ICE have no criminal records, another 30% have been charged with crimes but not convicted, and 5% have convictions for violent crimes. The portion of people arrested by ICE without criminal records has been rising under President Donald Trump.
It’s unclear why the Trump administration targeted Maine specifically — a state with a very small immigrant population — with ramped up enforcement. But Trump made immigration a signature issue in 2024, and he’s been critical of the state’s Democratic leaders in the past.
An even larger immigration enforcement effort is underway in Minnesota, which has been targeted after a social services fraud scandal involving Somali immigrants — and what the federal government has characterized as a lack of cooperation from state and local leaders. Similar allegations of fraud involving a health care services provider led by a Somali American have also recently come to light in Maine.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said during a news conference in Minneapolis on Thursday morning that federal immigration authorities are working on a “drawdown plan” for Minnesota, but he didn’t specify what that means for Maine.
He emphasized that immigration agents will still be conducting “targeted” enforcement with a priority of apprehending people with prior criminal histories.
But, Homan said, “if you’re in the country illegally, you’re never off the table.”
FEDS HIGHLIGHT A SMALL PORTION OF CASES
The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Maine’s only statewide legal services organization focused on immigration, said Wednesday that it had responded to requests for emergency legal help from about 65 people arrested in the federal operation.
Most of those people are in lawful immigration processes, seeking asylum and do not have criminal records, the group said.
“Most people were racially profiled and taken by ICE from their cars while driving or off the street,” ILAP Policy Director Lisa Parisio said in a written statement. “People who were arrested or their loved ones have reported they were on their way to or from work, children’s schools, doctor’s appointments and places of worship.”
Two of the people arrested in ICE’s enhanced enforcement operation have been convicted of aggravated assault. One man had a domestic violence-related charge, and another had been convicted of assault. Five of the 10 arrests included people who were convicted of operating vehicles under the influence or driving while impaired, according to ICE.
Dominic Ali, originally from Sudan, was convicted of several violent crimes before agents detained him this month.
Court records show Ali was convicted in 2004 of violating a protective order and in 2008 of second-degree assault, false imprisonment and obstructing the reporting of a crime. In the latter case, prosecutors said he threw his girlfriend to the floor of her New Hampshire apartment, kicked her and broke her collarbone, according to the Associated Press.
The AP reported that Ali was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison in 2009 and was later paroled to ICE custody. In 2013, an immigration judge ordered his removal. It’s unclear what happened between the order and his recent arrest, the Associated Press said.
The Press Herald was unable to identify whether Ali has an attorney.
In another case, DHS said Elmara Correia, originally from Angola, was previously arrested for endangering the welfare of a child. Correia, described by DHS as an “illegal alien,” has filed court paperwork in Massachusetts seeking a release from custody. She says she is being unlawfully detained following her recent arrest.
An attorney for Correia did not respond to a request for comment on her case.
According to a Lewiston police report, in May, Correia lost track of her 4-year-old son for several hours until a neighbor called the police with concerns. Officers discovered the child had been out of the home for over five hours, and later summonsed Correia on the endangerment charge.
A GoFundMe set up for Correia and her family describes her as a “dedicated mom, community volunteer, and active member of our community,” and says her recent arrest by ICE in Lewiston has been disruptive for her family, especially her son.
Manuel Vemba, Correia’s former partner and the father of her young child, told the Sun Journal this week that the child endangerment case was a lapse that could happen to any mother.
Their son, who could see other children playing outside, was able to open the front door and join them, he said.
“It’s a normal child’s willingness to go out, especially if they see their friends playing soccer,” Vemba said. “I had a conversation with some neighbors who said there was a different group of kids playing there and he wasn’t by himself.”
OTHERS DON’T HAVE CRIMINAL RECORDS
The Press Herald has identified a dozen people with no criminal backgrounds who were in the midst of immigration proceedings and were detained.
On Jan. 20, Jean-Pierre Obiang, an 18-year-old student at the University of Southern Maine, was detained after a minor car crash at the Westbrook Market Basket. Obiang’s mother, Sandrine Koumba, said she and her family are asylum seekers from Gabon, a West African country. A criminal background check on Obiang in Maine came back with no offenses on his record.
The same day, Marcos Da Silva, a contractor originally from Brazil, was pulled over and taken into ICE custody. Da Silva’s wife, a U.S. citizen, said he entered the country as an asylum seeker, and that in 2024, she filed a petition to sponsor him for a green card. Their application is still being processed, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
A background check completed through the Maine State Bureau of Identification returned no records for Da Silva. ICE has not responded to questions about why he was detained.
In another case, Juan Sebastian Carvajal-Munoz, a civil engineer from Colombia employed by an engineering consulting company, was detained by officers on Pearl Street in Portland, according to a witness who shared video with The Maine Monitor.
Carvajal-Munoz has no criminal record, according to the Monitor. Colleagues said he is in the country on a work visa. The Maine Morning Star reported that Carvajal-Munoz has since been released. Efforts to reach him this week were unsuccessful.
Several of Maine’s immigrant advocacy groups say that while ICE’s enhanced operation may be over, they’re worried about “normal” operations resuming. People without criminal records were being apprehended earlier this year, and they’re concerned that they will continue to be.
For now, leaders from organizations like ILAP, Presente! Maine and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine are urging community members to stay vigilant.
Staff Writers Morgan Womack and Joe Charpentier contributed to this report.
