Kenney Miller of Rockland has asked The Audacity to send out this call to action:

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“On Monday, 6/9 the Rockland City Council will vote on Order #44 “Law Enforcement Interaction with Federal Immigration Authorities” and Order #26 “Directing PD Not to Accept Grants w/o Agreement”. Every week we hear of more instances of arrests and deportation processes throughout Maine, many facilitated by local, county, and state police. These are vital members of our community, not the violent criminals often depicted by the Trump regime. These two orders help protect our community from federal overreach and pressure to support ICE and immigration enforcement, preserve local resources, and offer robust protections for immigrant communities. Cities and towns in Maine are being pressured to conform and support immigration enforcement in abducting our neighbors. NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!  Urge Rockland City Council to support and protect immigrants’ rights by enacting these robust ordinances and turning away Department of Homeland Security funding. (plus there are two bonus issues that support people experiencing homelessness, see below for details)

ACTIONS:

• Reach out to Rockland City Councilors TODAY. Urge them to support robust orders to protect our communities from federal overreach by immigration authorities and make Rockland a welcoming city. Contact information for councilors can be found here, or you can ask City Clerk Stuart Sylvester to share your mail with them at ssylvester@rocklandmaine.gov.

• MOST IMPORTANTLY Come to the Rockland City Council meeting on Monday, June 9, 5:30PM, 270 Pleasant Street, and tell City Council that Rockland needs robust ordinances to protect and support immigrants’ rights, and that the Council should not accept funding without a chance to review the terms. There are no zoom details yet, but if you email mill.ken@proton.me we will share them with you if they’re made available.

• If you can’t make it, email City Councilors via City Clerk Stuart Sylvester at ssylvester@rocklandmaine.gov. Ask him to share your email with city councilors and the city manager. If you want your comments read aloud, you can request that. Written comments should be sent on Monday, June 2nd in order to be read aloud.

• Share a copy of whatever you’re sending to the group who is coordinating for strong policies in Rockland: mill.ken@proton.me

• Tell a friend and get them to attend or email as well!

• Make a donation to Presente! Maine,  Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition or Maine Immigrants’ Legal Advocacy Project.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME: Rockland residents get to speak first during public comments, but after that, those who live elsewhere (and work, shop, hang out in Rockland) can speak as well. THE PUBLIC COMMENT PORTION STARTS OFF THE MEETING, AND YOU CAN MOST MAKE YOUR OPINIONS ON THESE ISSUES HEARD THEN.

This is an issue in Maine and in the Midcoast:

• A recent Maine Public release documents a surge in arrests by Border Patrol in Maine, including arrests of 39 people over a ten day period, and more arrests in the first four months than in the entirety of 2024.

• According to the Immigrant Legal Resource Center "Over the last decade, 70-75% of ICE arrests in the interior of the U.S. have been handoffs from another law enforcement agency, be it a local or state jail or federal prison." Often these are for small insignificant offenses, like traffic stops, that would be a slap on the wrist for others. 

• Recent arrests in Waldo County, Knox County, and Cumberland County are highly public examples of this, and there are many others that we haven’t heard about. These are not criminals, but working people who make important contributions to our communities. This testimony on a state bill by a legal fellow at a law clinic in Cumberland County paints the heartbreaking picture of what’s happening in our communities.

• Customs and Border Patrol is in the process of ramping up the number of CBP agents in Maine, and will likely be more present than they have been in the recent past, making these issues more prevalent. There is more pressure to conform and betray our community.

• At a recent Rockland City Council meeting several service providers, including local food security and education nonprofits, commented on how fearful immigrants, asylees, and refugees are becoming.

• Immigrants make up an important part of our economy and our communities. They are the backbone of our agricultural industry, construction industry, and many other important economic sectors. Immigration attorneys are cautioning their clients against traveling to Maine because of people being abducted.

• We want a robust ordinance that effectively continues to ensure City staff and Rockland PD will not support or otherwise engage in the functions of federal civil immigration enforcement, either through formal or informal arrangements, including:

• stopping, questioning, interrogating, investigating, or arresting people solely on the basis of actual or suspected immigration or citizenship status

• detaining or transferring custody of an individual for federal civil immigration enforcement

• providing non-public information about an individual to federal civil immigration authorities

• inquiring about immigration status (including all city staff as part of their duties)

• have real accountability mechanisms

• Cities with policies like these have lower crime rates and greater trust in law enforcement - Supporting immigration enforcement activities erodes public trust in local law enforcement, especially the trust of immigrants, making it less likely that people will engage with law enforcement when needed. This is contrary to the philosophy of Community Policing that Rockland PD have boldly lead Maine in adopting.

• Local resources that would be invested in enforcing federal civil immigration law could be better utilized to address pressing problems, including those that REALLY threaten the health and safety of Rockland residents. At the public hearing on two Immigration related bills in Augusta, the ACLU of Maine referenced numerous cases of people suing their city/local government for violations of their constitutional rights.

• Constitutional law clearly indicates that Rockland is well within its rights to decline to support federal civil immigration enforcement activities

• Rockland should instead support efforts to educate its’ residents and businesses surrounding their constitutional rights - Community lead efforts to teach immigrants about their rights under the law send the message the Rockland is an welcoming and inclusive city

• To date there has been no contract or agreement detailing what the City would be agreeing to by accepting Operation StoneGarden funds. The City and the public should be able to deliberate on accepting the award with ALL of the details to ensure that we will not regret accepting the funds.

• Standard Department of Homeland Security Terms and Conditions require that recipients support Federal Immigration Authorities as requested, including 'requests for cooperation, such as participation in joint operations, sharing of information, or requests for short term detention of an alien" (page 4, item IX)

• The City of Rockland turned the award down in 2020, prior to agreeing in 2024 without having seen a contract or agreement.

• There is a notable lack of transparency around Operation StoneGarden at all levels, and no sense of what governments have accepted the funds and what they’ve been used for is hard to come by.

• Other areas that accepted these awards have expressed regret in giving up power to federal authorities.

• The award is only $10,000 compared to RPD’s $3M budget, but would grow in successive years, making it harder to say no to.

• This award is specifically to support collaboration between RPD and Customs and Border Patrol, the primary immigration enforcement agency operating in Maine, and raises concerns over what local law enforcement might be compelled to do or support in spite of local sentiment. 

• Regular grant reports ask about how many people were encountered for ‘Immigration’.