Overview
- LD 1971 prohibits Maine police from stopping, interrogating, arresting or detaining people for immigration enforcement and limits contact with ICE and CBP to criminal investigations.
- The legislation bars correctional facilities from notifying ICE that someone in custody may be undocumented.
- Gov. Janet Mills allowed the bill to take effect without her signature after missing the post-adjournment signing window, rather than vetoing it.
- At the same time, Mills repealed former Gov. Paul LePage’s 2011 executive order that promoted broader state-federal immigration cooperation.
- Democrats and immigrant advocates praised the policy as protecting due process and community trust, while Republicans and some sheriffs warned of public-safety risks and possible federal grant losses under threatened penalties for so-called sanctuary jurisdictions.