AUGUSTA — Paul LePage, the former Maine governor and Republican nominee for the closely contested 2nd Congressional District, told reporters Monday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should prioritize “people in the gangs and criminals first,” not long-standing residents.

“Well,” LePage said in response to a reporter’s question, “Are they here legally? If they’re not here legally, they’ve broken the law, unfortunately. And (ICE officers) have a job to do.”

The firebrand and former Waterville mayor was in Augusta to accept an endorsement from Maine’s Fraternal Order of Police. LePage faces Democratic State Auditor Matt Dunlap in November.

During his time in politics, LePage has consistently called for increased immigration enforcement. As governor, LePage stripped public support for noncitizens seeking asylum and ended the state’s participation in refugee resettlement. And on Monday, he blasted the Maine law that limits law enforcement cooperation with immigration officers.

But his take, which drew in part on personal experience, was somewhat more nuanced Monday. LePage said that his son’s father-in-law is subject to deportation, despite holding a work permit, because “he’s from a country that’s not to the liking of certain people in Washington.”

“That’s not right,” the former governor said.

LePage did not offer other details about the man, nor did he specify his country of origin.

His stance on whom ICE should target first diverges from how the principal agency behind President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operation has operated so far in Maine this year, the data shows.

About 69% of people arrested by ICE in the first seven months of 2026 had no criminal conviction or charge on their record, according to public records obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed last month by the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. Only 12% of those arrested by ICE had been convicted of a crime, according to the data.

So far this year, Maine has seen the sharpest increase in the country of people with no criminal records arrested by ICE, a Washington Post analysis of the Deportation Data Project records showed.

People going through the legal asylum process were also among the more than 200 people arrested and seized from vehicles during ICE’s “Operation Catch of the Day” in January, which had the stated goal of targeting the “worst of the worst.”

And being in the country without proper authorization is not itself a crime — a common misconception about immigration law.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, may begin deportation proceedings and impose fines on those in the country illegally, but not all immigrants here without authorization committed a crime when they entered the U.S. For example, overstaying a visa is a civil offense, not a criminal one.

LePage said that ICE should limit its scope.

“Would I go after everybody that’s here, that have work permits and have been here for decades? Probably not,” LePage said. “I’d probably go for the people in the gangs and the criminals — I would start there.”

LePage’s comments on ICE’s targets are especially salient in the aftermath of the fatal shooting of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by an ICE agent in Biddeford in July. ICE agents were executing a warrant of which Guerrero was not a subject, officials confirmed.

Durán Guerrero’s killing has spurred continuing protests across the state and demands for accountability. David Brouillette, whom several people have identified as the agent who shot Durán Guerrero, has not been charged.

And LePage’s long-held views may find less support in this cycle than in his previous runs for office. More than half of Maine voters said they disapproved of Trump’s performance on immigration in a joint New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll in June — before Durán Guerrero’s shooting.