Three laws passed by the Maine state legislature to limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will go into effect tomorrow, Wednesday, with restrictions on federal agents' access to schools, hospitals and homes, as well as collaboration with local police and prisons.
Laws come into force
The measures, known as “ICE Out,” go into effect Wednesday after Democratic Gov. Janet Mills allowed them to pass without her signature.
These laws were promoted amid criticism of the immigration policy of President Donald Trump's Administration, two weeks after the death of Colombian immigrant Johan Sebastian Durán at the hands of federal agents in the city of Biddeford, in the south of the state.
One of the laws, “ICE outside the police,” limits the collaboration of local forces with ICE by prohibiting authorities from transferring immigrants in police custody to federal detention centers, holding them for requests from the immigration agency or reporting their release dates.
The measure seeks to prevent immigrants from stopping going to local authorities for fear of immigration consequences, the Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine explained this Tuesday during a press conference.
Schools, hospitals and homes
Another rule, “ICE outside of schools and health centers,” allows staff at public schools, medical centers and state libraries to deny access to those spaces or certain information to immigration agents who do not present a court order.
For decades, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), on which ICE depends, maintained a policy that restricted immigration detentions in places considered sensitive, but Trump revoked it after taking office in January 2025.
The third law, “ICE Out of Our Homes,” prevents landlords from handing over their tenants’ personal information to ICE without a court order and offers protection from potential pressure or intimidation from the agency.
More states join
With these measures, Maine joins other states such as New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut and Delaware, as well as several cities and counties, that have approved similar rules to limit local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
“These policies make it easier for people to go to work, take their children to school, go to the doctor or ask for help without fear that local institutions will be used to enforce federal immigration laws,” said Rubén Torres, policy director for the Maine Coalition for Immigrant Rights.
Meanwhile, legal advisor Zach Heiden of the ACLU said they do not expect ICE to voluntarily comply with the new restrictions, but they trust that local police, sheriff's offices and jails will enforce them.
The ACLU last week released the national report “Agents of Chaos and Cruelty,” documenting more than 400 cases of alleged ICE misconduct among more than 1,200 immigration incidents analyzed.
The organization maintains that the increase in resources granted to the agency under the Trump Administration has increased its power without reforms having been approved to strengthen oversight and accountability mechanisms.
"The violence carried out by ICE does not constitute law enforcement in the strict sense of the word. It is illegal, terrifying and deadly, and it must stop," the organization concluded.
