PORTLAND — Sen. Susan Collins called on the Trump administration Tuesday to pause its aggressive immigration enforcement in Maine and Minnesota around the same time police arrested nine faith leaders who were protesting outside the senator’s Portland office.

Collins’ office said in a statement that she has spoken with both the White House and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about ongoing operations this month.

“I believe they should be reviewed and far more targeted in their scope,” Collins said. “I have also called for an independent investigation, not one overseen by the Department of Homeland Security.”

Maine’s Republican senior senator has faced mounting pressure to speak out about immigration enforcement and to vote against a DHS funding bill that would provide further funding.

Late Tuesday morning, two dozen protesters sang their way into the elevators at 1 Canal Plaza in downtown Portland and crowded the hallway outside Collins’ eighth floor office. The group representing nearly 10 denominations was there to urge Collins to call for an immediate end to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement campaign in Maine and to vote against a bill that would provide further funding for ICE.

Portland Police Department Maj. Jason King said the arrests were made two hours later after the protesters were given warnings to leave the hallway and a small waiting room due to fire code concerns. While most left, nine stayed. King said they “asked to be arrested.”

In a news release Tuesday evening, police named the nine people arrested as Norman Allen, 65, of Portland; Christine Dyke, 60, of Gorham; Will Green, 44, of Peaks Island; Annemarie Morse, 28, of Lewiston; Eric Nathanson, 31, of Scarborough; Jasa Porciello, 51, of Portland; Allison Smith, 55, of South Harpswell; Doratha Yunger, 55, of Newcastle, and Robert Lerin, 51, who did not have a hometown listed.

Tuesday’s action is the latest in a series of protests staged in Portland and other communities in response to ICE’s campaign in Maine that the Department of Homeland Security said has detained 200 people so far.

Collins addressed the funding concerns in her statement and reiterated that she would not oppose the DHS bill because less than 20% of the funding is for ICE. The rest pays for the salaries and operations of the U.S. Coast Guard, FEMA, TSA and other agencies.

“The funding that is supporting the current ICE operations, and to which the protesters in Portland were objecting, mostly comes from the Big, Beautiful Bill, which I voted against,” she said.

‘A MORAL IMPERATIVE’

When protesters first arrived at Collins’ Portland office on Tuesday, there was some initial friction, with lead staffer Halsey Frank telling the crowd that the use of recording devices and blocking the hallway was “not acceptable.”

“We don’t find what’s happening in our streets right now acceptable,” one protester responded.

Three members of the group, including Dyke, lead minister at First Parish Congregational Church in Gorham, had a short meeting with Frank, after which Dyke said they planned to stay until they received a response from Collins.

“We were kind and cordial as we spoke but very firm that we consider this cruel behavior and this is a moral imperative for us to be here and speak,” she said. She then informed the crowd that security would likely be called.

Earlier, Dyke had told Frank that two members of her congregation have been detained by ICE in recent days.

“The people that are being removed are following the rules and are still being taken,” she said. “We need (Collins) to stand up and stand against (ICE). We need her to use her power today and tomorrow to make that change.”

In between communication with Frank, protesters sang and offered prayers. One of the songs featured lyrics that said, “Immigrants, my friends, you do not walk alone. We will walk with you, and sing your spirit home.”

Dyke and protest organizer Nathanson of Jewish Action Maine were among those arrested. As Nathanson was stepping into a police vehicle, he said he and others stayed in Collins’ office because they did not want to leave without an official response from Collins. Some protesters continued singing even as others were being placed in police vehicles.

MOUNTING PRESSURE ON CONGRESS

Since the killing of Alex Pretti in Minnesota this past weekend, members of Congress have been under increased pressure to oppose a funding bill for DHS, which could result in a partial government shutdown by the end of the week.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said Democrats “will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.” U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent, has said he can no longer support funding ICE, and constituents have pressured Collins to follow suit, so far unsuccessfully.

Dyke said because Collins chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, she has a key role in deciding whether ICE continues to receive funds.

“We welcome Senator Collins’ call for ICE to end its surge in Maine and Minnesota,” the faith leaders said in a statement late Tuesday. “As long as she continues to maintain her support for increased funding for ICE, we as Mainers of conscience, must ask where is ICE going to terrorize next with those funds?”

Groups represented at Tuesday’s event included United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Universal Life Church, American Baptist, Quaker Society of Friends, the Catholic Church, and others.

The Rev. Reba Delzell, pastor at Williston-Immanuel United Church on High Street, led a prayer while the crowd was waiting for word from those in Collins’ office. She said those gathered “stand for justice and peace and calm” and “stand for our immigrant neighbors” and people of color, “who are terrified, even as citizens, to be out on the streets.”

Allen, pastor at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Portland, who was also among those arrested, said the recent actions of ICE in Maine, Minneapolis and across the country “are a direct contradiction of our values as people of faith and as Americans.”

“We hope that Senator Collins has the courage to name this threat to democracy for what it is, and to cease all funding of these immoral and murderous acts,” he said.