You’re receiving this newsletter because you've been volunteering, signed up to get trained, or you’ve been supporting the Hotline in other ways.

First, thank you to all who have stepped up! Because of your dedication, we've been able to provide the most accurate and reliable information available in this time of fear and confusion created by ICE's surge in Maine, and nationally.

As a projects of MIRC and the People's Coalition for Safety & Justice, along with the help of many other partners, the Maine Immigrant Defense Hotline serves the purpose of both ICE Watch and Resource Hub referrals.

There are now almost 1,500 volunteers in the Maine Immigrant Defense Hotline universe, increasing the need to communicate updates, data and trends we are seeing in the world of ICE watching and resource referrals.

Though ICE appears to have slowed its roll in Maine — thanks to our organized response — they're still here with the threat looming of around 1,200 more arrests from their supposed “worst of the worst” list.

As many of you know first hand, Hotline reports are still coming in. While calls are much lower than week one of the surge, there have still been 600+ calls and texts since Senator Collins made her announcement of striking a deal with DHS. ⬇️

Where are verified sightings shared?

Over the past 2 weeks, many have asked where the news of verified sightings go. It's not a single, simple answer. There are dozens of community chats on Signal, WhatsApp and social media channels amplifying them, publicly and privately.

So far, the fastest and most reliable public place to find alerts of verified sightings has been the No ICE for ME Instagram account's stories. This may evolve but for the time being, we recommend those interested in the announcements follow No ICE for ME.

As we continue to evolve our Hotline program, and the pressure of the surge eases, we plan to deepen the work of verifiers by adding a canvassing component, where volunteers also talk with neighbors and local businesses in the area of sightings to get a more complete picture of reports rather than just a "yes" or "no" on verification. More to come on this.

As you may have seen, our trainings were on hold because of white supremacist groups encouraging their followers to sign up in bad faith to disrupt our efforts.

We have created a process to vet interested volunteers and have re-opened registration for verifiers. Moving forward, this link will be the sole form to share with people interested in trainings from the ICE Watch Hotline team, which are held on the first Tuesday of each month from 5-7pm. If this date and/or time doesn’t work for you, we’ll let you know of additional trainings, including in-person events, that are hosted by folks within our network across the state.

We currently have enough operators for the time being, and are working our way through getting them all fully trained and vetted.

A silver lining to being trolled by fascists is that, along with those who've tried to sign up for our trainings, we have a database of 992 phone numbers we've blocked so far for harassment, plus hundreds of recorded voicemails that we can use to learn more about these troll callers. This can be very useful in tracking and reporting threats or possible hate crimes.

Looking at the data 

One of the best ways we have to track ICE is in looking at data trends from our Hotline. Using this, we were able to identify the surge before it started. And we saw the slow down before Senator Collins claimed it as her doing.

ICE claims to have arrested 206 people during the surge. But their lack of transparency and accountability has not allowed confirmation of who they arrested. Less than half have been confirmed, with Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) getting requests for emergency legal help from 73 people, in part through the assistance of our Hotline and Resource Hub referrals. 

Additionally, Maine Public has just released bios of over a dozen names of public stories collected from surge arrests, so we can get a glimpse of who has been taken from our communities. We're grateful to report that we've begun hearing instances of some making it back home already with the help of legal support and mutual aid efforts we've been referring out.

Our hope is that people learning and asserting their rights will slow the pace of future arrests, as vulnerable community members are increasingly heading alerts and opting to stay home as possible when notified.

Additionally, MIRC just released an analysis of 2024-2025 ICE apprehension data that gives insights into the likely demographics and status of people arrested in this latest surge.

What's happening at the AGs office?

We established a line of communication into AG Aaron Frey's office, and asked that they seek an injunction against ICE in the state, based on evidence the Hotline has been gathering that it violates the 10th Amendment which gives states sovereignty to protect themselves. (As both Illinois and Minnesota have already done.) The AG's office saw the urgency, thanks to us nudging them along. They filed an amicus brief in the MN case, and began collecting evidence for legal action here.

Their office says they've now collected numerous complaints of excessive force. They are continuing to collect evidence of civil rights violations, and also calling for the release of information on the 206 arrests that occurred during the first week of the surge.

ICE out of Maine, for good

Last week a group of unions, churches, and community organizations representing memberships of over 150 thousand Mainers announced a growing movement across the state calling for continued action to get ICE out of Maine, to bring those detained back home, and to hold officials accountable for the harm caused.

While our work as Hotline operators and verifiers has been distinct from protesting, we all wear many hats. If you haven’t already, with the slowdown in ICE arrests, now is a good time to put on your protestor hat and join the movement in the streets.

If you're looking to get more involved and meet fellow Hotline volunteers, check out this Community Preparedness Skillshare offering a day of trainings and workshops on Feb. 7 in Portland. And here's a promotional video for it that you can share on Instagram.

Thank you for your dedication to protecting immigrant rights,

Mufalo Chitam

MIRC Executive Director

P.S. If you are able to make a donation to sustain our Hotline work in this critical time, we welcome it and thank you immensely.