BANGOR — Protesters rallied outside of Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins’ Bangor office Thursday to demand an end to funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The protest came just hours after Collins announced that ICE is ending its “enhanced operations” in Maine, citing communications with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
“I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state,” Collins said in a statement, in part. “I appreciate the secretary's willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine.”
However, the demonstration had already been planned by Democratic U.S Senate Candidate Graham Platner prior to the announcement.
“Initially, the plan was that we were going to just call on Senator Collins to vote ‘no’ on more money for ICE,” said Platner. “But [Thursday] morning she came out and said that she’s got a pinky promise from Kristy Noem, and ICE’s operations in Maine are going to slim down.”
The event in Bangor followed another protest in Portland earlier Thursday morning.
Platner, who is vying for a chance to unseat Collins, said he’s skeptical about her announcement.
“I do not believe what Kristi Noem says,” said Platner. “But more importantly, it is not enough to just bring operations down in tempo. ICE needs to be out of Maine.”
Protesters we spoke with said they took issue with the wording used in Collins’ announcement.
“We were never going to have a large-scale operation like they did in Minnesota.” said protester Keith Newman. “So, for her to come out and say that large-scale operations have ceased is frankly an invalid statement.”
Collins has previously said a proposed funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security includes $20 million for body cameras for ICE agents and border patrol, and $2 million for de-escalation training.
A potential partial federal government shutdown is also looming, with Senate Democrats pledging to block a spending bill if Republicans don’t meet their demands for ICE reform. It’s an issue Platner touched on while speaking to protesters in Bangor.
“Republicans would rather close the government than not give more money to an agency that, in the past few weeks, has murdered American citizens in cold blood,” said Platner, referring to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.
We have reached out to Collins’ office for comment.