The Honda sat still Thursday morning in the northbound lane of Deering Avenue by Bedford Street and the University of Southern Maine campus.
Several cars waited behind it, but no one was inside.
Moments earlier, agents with masks on their faces and the word “POLICE” affixed to the back of their jackets had taken the unidentified driver and peeled away in unmarked cars, according to witnesses who recorded the incident. Angry onlookers cussed at the officers, who carried on, unperturbed. One shook a pepper spray canister.
About 15 minutes later and a little more than a mile away, a Hyundai was left running on Pearl Street in downtown Portland. Another masked group had taken Juan Sebastian Carvajal-Munoz, a civil engineer and University of Maine alumnus from Colombia with a work visa and no criminal record. They smashed his window, put him in an unmarked Subaru, and drove off, witnesses told the Maine Monitor.
Those who spotted the detentions raised loud protests. They whistled and honked urgently. But the agents worked fast, and the conflicts were fleeting.
Left in their wake: eerie city streets returning to their normal rhythm. The abandoned cars, engines left running and various belongings inside, were shuttled by generous Mainers to nearby lots.
Since Tuesday, ICE agents have appeared outside businesses, health care facilities, apartments and immigrant-owned restaurants in the Portland and Lewiston areas. Fearing raids, neighbors have offered to escort kids to school. Friends have used group chats to try to find out whether their gym, their favorite bakeries or other spots are still safe.
The apprehensions have changed the tenor of a state unaccustomed to large law enforcement actions. Save for a mass shooting in 2023, Maine has never seen a mobilized police force like this.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s “Operation Catch of the Day” officially launched this week. President Donald Trump’s administration said as of Thursday night it had so far arrested more than 100 people and is targeting about 1,400 individuals in Maine who are the “worst of the worst” criminals in the country illegally. Their efforts were cheered on by many Mainers who voted for stronger borders.
While federal officials have posted a handful of photos of detainees they say have committed crimes, local and state leaders have questioned why people with legal status and no criminal records are among those getting swept up.
Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat whose clash with Trump last year over transgender athletes put Maine in the Republican president’s crosshairs, reiterated Thursday that she has not heard anything from the federal government. Nothing about updated arrest numbers, or how long the operation may last. Maine’s members of Congress largely say the same thing.
Amid the raids, more silence.
While the rural, northern half of Maine has supported Trump and his immigration agenda, the ICE operation is focused on the more urban, progressive southern half. Residents have offered plenty of pushback, staging protests Friday and Saturday in Portland and Lewiston, where most immigrants in the state have settled.
The scenes in Maine have not turned as violent and chaotic as those in Minneapolis – where a man was killed by a federal agent Saturday – and other cities where ICE has carried out high-profile raids. But at times, it has felt like the state is approaching a tipping point.
“We’re on day three, and it feels like it has been a month,” Liz Eisele McLellan, a community volunteer, said Wednesday as she drove around Westbrook following unmarked cars.
Community members seeking to record ICE activity said agents have threatened them. Protesters showed up Friday night outside two Old Port hotels where ICE agents were believed to be staying. Six people were arrested Friday night.
Chiefs of the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes encouraged members to carry their tribal IDs to avoid detention. Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce bashed ICE’s tactics as “bush league” after agents arrested one of his corrections officers who he said is legally allowed to work in the country and left his car running in the street. Shortly after, ICE said Joyce was “grandstanding,” then moved all of its detainees out of his jail.
Portland-area schools with sizable populations of English language learners reported higher absences. High school athletic teams were preparing for smaller rosters ahead of weekend competitions. Folks called out sick from work or just didn’t show up.
Family members wonder what is next for loved ones whose routine changed in a flash.
Jean-Pierre Obiang, an 18-year-old University of Southern Maine accounting student whose family fled persecution in the West African nation of Gabon, has lived in Westbrook for three years while going through the asylum process.
On Tuesday morning, he was driving to class when he got in a minor car accident with a man who later described the teen as polite and kind.
Obiang, who has no criminal record, called his mom, Sandrine Koumba, to get insurance details. Three ICE agents suddenly appeared and said they ran Obiang’s plates. The agents pushed the other driver into his car after he tried telling them Obiang had done nothing wrong, according that driver’s wife.
Obiang called his mom. She had trained her children to keep official documents on them.
“They’re taking me,” he said.
Then the call dropped.
Tuesday night, Koumba got another call from her son. He told her he loved her.
He was in Burlington, Massachusetts, he said. He heard he’d be shuttled to another facility Wednesday. He did not know where.
