SCARBOROUGH — The eyes of the country are on Scarborough, residents warned town councilors Wednesday night.

In turn, councilors unanimously passed a proclamation calling on Maine’s congressional delegation to investigate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in town. 

Scarborough has the state’s only ICE processing facility — which has faced increased scrutiny and protest after an ICE agent identified by an ex-wife as David Brouillette shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford this month. 

For many of the more than 100 residents at the council meeting, the actions of the federal agency that’s housed in their town reflect on them. 

They felt ashamed and embarrassed, sad and angry. 

Many Scarborough residents — and the dozens of others from nearby communities who rallied in the rain outside Town Hall before the meeting with “ICE out” signs— said they knew someone whose life had been upended by ICE. 

The group filtered into the meeting room at 6 p.m., their raincoats and hair dripping wet. The line for public comment snaked across the room, and the meeting — which was scheduled to last an hour and had only one item on the agenda — ended around 8:15 p.m.

Some spoke with shaking voices and trembling breaths, some clearly and calmly but with a resolute anger behind their voices. 

The meeting ended with an unusual unanimous vote. The Scarborough Town Council passed the proclamation, which called for increased transparency and accountability of federal immigration enforcement activities and the evaluation of alternative uses of 40 Manson Libby Road, including the discontinuation or relocation of ICE operations. 

But for most attendees, the proclamation wasn’t nearly enough. 

A few days before, a petition began circulating online asking for the town to take three actions: pass an ordinance to limit the town’s engagement with federal immigration agents, order an investigation of the ICE facility and document ICE’s local impact.  

Councilors agreed; The proclamation was just a first step. 

“We’re going to pass this tonight, and we’re not going away,” Councilor Bill Donovan said. “We’re with you.”