Human Impact Project

Pastor Antonio, an African immigrant whose immigration case is pending, leads a multilingual evangelical church in southern Maine serving local African communities. Attendance has plummeted as congregants stay home out of fear of ICE arrests, with members telling him they are too scared to come in person. Antonio himself expresses concern about what could happen to him as a parent and advises parishioners to ensure their immigration papers are in order. Advocates including the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project and Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition report increased ICE activity concentrated in the Lewiston-Auburn area, with agents detaining people near their homes. Community members are reactivating informal networks to document arrests, with advocates reporting nine arrests in three weeks and at least one arrest documented near Portland.

Olivia Andre, a 19-year-old nursing student and asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was apprehended with her family in November 2025 while attempting to seek asylum. While her mother and two younger siblings were released in March 2026 following a court order, Andre remained detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas for approximately six months because she is technically an adult without guardianship of her siblings. During her detention, she experienced severe physical and mental health deterioration including weight loss of nearly 20 pounds, depression, insomnia, nightmares, suicidal ideation, headaches, and received no mental health care despite documented PTSD and depression. On May 9, 2026, a federal district court judge in San Antonio ruled that Andre's detention was unlawful because the government failed to establish she posed a danger or flight risk and that continued detention violated her constitutional right to due process. She was released and reunited with her family in Portland, Maine.

Rufino Beca, a 59-year-old pastor from Angola who arrived in the U.S. in 2017, was detained by ICE agents on April 20, 2026, outside a store on St. John's Street in Portland, Maine. Beca leads two Assembly of God congregations in Biddeford and Portland. He was apprehended while collecting funds to help another congregation member held in immigration custody. DHS stated he overstayed a six-month tourist visa. His daughter disputes this claim, stating he is an asylum seeker with no criminal record. Beca remains held at Strafford County Jail in Dover, New Hampshire.

Emmanuel Landila, a Cumberland County corrections recruit hired in February 2025 with work authorization valid until 2029, was arrested by federal agents during ICE's 'Operation Catch of the Day' after they stopped his car in Portland's Bayside neighborhood. Cellphone video showed agents pulling him from the vehicle as he shouted, 'I am a corrections officer! I work in Cumberland County!' Agents left his car unlocked on the roadside with the lights on and windows down, prompting Sheriff Kevin Joyce to call it 'bush league policing' and note Landila had been vetted through a rigorous hiring process. His family raised nearly $20,000 through a GoFundMe campaign for legal fees. After a month in a Massachusetts jail, an immigration judge released him on bond, and he returned to Maine to resume training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents conducted an immigration enforcement operation on Wednesday morning, detaining approximately a dozen workers traveling to Backyard Farms greenhouses in Madison. This was the second enforcement operation at the facility in recent weeks; a similar operation on February 10 detained 17 workers from the same agricultural employer. A judge ordered the release of one detainee from the February 10 operation, a Venezuelan man who had entered as an unaccompanied child, and two other Venezuelan men withdrew habeas petitions shortly after filing them. The fate of most detainees from both operations remains unclear. Advocates and attorneys have characterized the operations as planned and representing an escalation in enforcement tactics.

Yubizay del Carmen Torrealba Linarez, a 20-year-old Venezuelan single mother, was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents on Wednesday while traveling to her job at Backyard Farms greenhouses in Madison. She fled political violence in Venezuela after her family experienced violent repression by the Maduro regime, including a 2024 home invasion where agents beat her husband and threatened her 2-year-old daughter. She was paroled into the United States in December 2024 and has been awaiting an asylum decision. Her attorney filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court challenging the legality of her detention; a judge ordered her kept in Maine pending review and ordered the government to respond by Wednesday. Since her detention, her sister has been caring for her 4-year-old daughter.

Colleen Fagan, a social worker, was observing an immigration enforcement operation at an apartment complex in Portland, Maine when federal agents scanned her face with a smartphone and recorded her car license plate. When she asked why they were taking her information, an agent told her, "Cause we have a nice little database. And now you're considered a domestic terrorist." Her video of the exchange went viral. Fagan is now a plaintiff in a federal class action lawsuit arguing that DHS unconstitutionally retaliates against people who lawfully observe and record immigration enforcement by gathering their personal information and labeling them domestic terrorists. She is concerned about being placed on a "no-fly" list and worries her employment could be affected.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 206 undocumented immigrants in Maine during a multiday operation in January 2026. According to data from the Deportation Data Project, only 6% of those arrested had criminal convictions, while 80% had neither criminal charges nor convictions. Maine Public is tracking several cases using interviews, court records, and reporting from other media outlets. Since the operation, 37 of those arrested have been deported or voluntarily left the country.

Thousands of protesters, including union members and families with children, marched to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in South Portland on Saturday to oppose immigration enforcement. Federal agents deployed tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and flash-bang grenades against the crowd, including children, after some protesters crossed onto the building's property. Portland City Councilor Mitch Green was tear-gassed and called for the abolition of ICE and DHS and prosecution of federal agents. Protester Malena Marvin, also tear-gassed, stated "This is like the big moral question of our time. Are we gonna let secret police kill people right in front of us?" and credited organized labor for the large turnout. Former OregonLive reporter Erin Hoover Barnett described the scene as terrifying, witnessing parents frantically tending to children in strollers and people on motorized carts struggling to escape the gas. Portland Mayor Keith Wilson characterized the demonstration as peaceful and called for ICE to leave the city, saying federal agents had "lost all legitimacy" through their use of violence.

Mayra Vaca Latacunga, 25, a single mother from Ecuador working in Maine's seafood industry, was detained by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine while her five-year-old daughter, Keyli Camila Espin Vaca, was at school. Vaca Latacunga, who entered the U.S. two years ago fleeing domestic violence, has no criminal record. She was handcuffed and transferred to Massachusetts, leaving her daughter without a caretaker. The arrest was part of a broader Trump administration immigration enforcement operation in Maine that has resulted in more than 200 arrests. After being held for several days, Vaca Latacunga was released with an ankle monitor and reunited with her daughter.

Mirian, a legally present resident of the United States who recently graduated from college, was followed by ICE from Westbrook to Scarborough, Maine. She was ordered to pull over during a traffic stop and was subsequently detained by ICE. Her family is seeking community support for her release.

Francoise Makuiza, a 32-year-old asylum seeker, was arrested by ICE on Friday morning while leaving for work at an assisted living facility in Portland. According to her attorney, Makuiza has no criminal history in Maine, has lived there for over 12 years, is the mother of a U.S. citizen, and was previously granted refugee status by Colombia after fleeing genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her detention is part of an ICE enforcement surge that has resulted in more than 200 arrests in Maine, including asylum seekers complying with immigration officials and immigrants married to U.S. citizens.

Juan Sebastián Carvajal-Muñoz, a Colombian civil engineer with a master's degree from the University of Maine and a valid H-1B work visa, was detained by ICE agents while driving to work in Portland, Maine on January 22, 2026. Masked agents in unmarked vehicles cut off his car, smashed his driver's side window with a crowbar, pointed a Taser at him, and forcibly removed him while he attempted to show proof of his lawful status. His car was left running in the street with his belongings inside and his phone discarded on the road. He was placed in full-body shackles and transported across state lines to an ICE facility in Massachusetts, held for hours in a windowless cell, then released without charges roughly 105 miles from his home. Carvajal-Muñoz has no criminal record, despite the operation reportedly targeting immigrants with criminal histories, and said he continues to fear being detained again. With assistance from the ACLU of Maine, he filed a federal lawsuit against ICE agent Jack Cory Ravencamp and two unidentified agents, alleging excessive force, warrantless arrest, unlawful detention, racial discrimination, and violations of his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights.

Cristian Vaca, a 28-year-old roofer from Ecuador who moved to Biddeford, Maine in September 2023, said ICE agents confronted him outside his home as part of the agency's 'Operation Catch of the Day' enforcement operation in Maine. Vaca said he was sitting on his couch when he noticed agents photographing him outside, and a video he recorded shows an agent telling him through his closed front door, 'We're going to come back for your whole family, OK?' while a child's voice can be heard in the background. Vaca lives with his wife and young son, has a Social Security number and work permit, pays income taxes, and has a scheduled immigration hearing.

A York County Jail corrections officer, who had worked at the jail for about a year after passing a criminal background check and federal work-authorization check, was arrested by ICE on Wednesday outside a scheduled immigration appointment in Scarborough. Sheriff William King said ICE did not notify his office of the arrest; the officer's family learned of it and alerted the sheriff. King described the officer as a valued staff member at a jail facing a staffing shortage. He remains held at a facility in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and King said the case has made him question ICE's stated focus on 'the worst of the worst.'

Makengo Nzeza was detained by ICE on January 23, 2026, while returning to the hospital after his wife gave birth via C-section to their newborn daughter. A member of First Parish Congregational Church in Saco and an asylum seeker from Angola who has lived in Maine for eight years, he was held at a facility in Burlington, Massachusetts, and later a county jail in Plymouth, where he described crowded conditions, little food, and no beds. After a bond hearing on February 5, a fellow parishioner drove to Massachusetts to help post his $2,000 bond, and he returned home days later. On February 15, he attended a Sunday service at his church to thank the congregation that had supported his family during his detention.

A Cumberland County corrections officer was detained by ICE agents Wednesday night in Portland despite having documentation showing he was authorized to work until April 2029. The officer had a clean background check when hired in February 2024 and was actively pursuing legal immigration status. Sheriff Kevin Joyce commented on the arrest, noting the officer's background and immigration status pursuit.

Evaristo Kalonji, an asylum seeker from Angola with no criminal record, was detained by ICE agents on January 22, 2026 in South Portland. His pastor, Carlos Nzolameso, found Kalonji's car abandoned with keys on the floor. Kalonji was moved between detention centers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island while his pending asylum case awaits a court date scheduled for May 2028.

An Ecuadoran woman seeking asylum was detained at Cumberland County Jail in Portland for five months. In January, ICE transferred her to Massachusetts without court authorization and then to Louisiana via air transport, removing her epilepsy medication despite knowing of her condition. During transfer she was shackled without food or bathroom access, and suffered multiple seizures in Louisiana while receiving no medication for days. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin found ICE made false and misleading statements to the court, unlawfully detained her without a bond hearing, and deliberately disregarded her medical needs. The judge ordered her released, barred re-arrest, and ordered the government to pay her legal fees of approximately $15,000.

During an ICE operation in January 2026, federal agents detained dozens of Mainers, including asylum-seeker Evaristo Kalonji, a church organist from Angola with no criminal record. His pastor discovered his abandoned car and learned Kalonji had been transferred to detention centers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island while his asylum case awaits a May 2028 court date. Federal judges subsequently ordered the release of approximately 35 detainees. Many detainees spent weeks in custody, lost employment, and paid thousands in bonds before being freed.