PORTLAND, Maine – ICE deputy assistant director is firing back at the growing chorus of Maine media and political criticism aimed at “Operation Catch of the Day,” insisting the agency is targeting “national security threats” and “public safety threats”, not people based on ethnicity or country of origin and warning that anti-ICE rhetoric is fueling risks to officers.
The Maine Wire’s Steve Robinson and Jon Fetherston spoke with ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde after a ride-along with ICE during Operation Catch of the Day earlier in the day. In the sit-down interview, as questions swirl over arrests tied to the enforcement effort and as some officials accuse ICE of sweeping up people who are in the country legally.
Hyde said ICE is “out looking for the targeted individuals,” but if officers come across someone else who is “here illegally,” ICE will take action, “that’s her job,” she said. Hyde argued there are “various reasons” someone can enter the U.S. lawfully and still end up violating immigration law, pointing to visa holders who break the conditions of their entry.
As examples, Hyde cited student visa holders who stop going to school, workers admitted under visas tied to a specific employer who no longer work for that company, and seasonal workers, including “summer help” in restaurants or agricultural work, who stop working where they are supposed to work. She also pointed to people who entered with a valid visa but “stay too long.”
On claims that ICE is arresting people who are here legally, Hyde described enforcement scenarios where officers may stop a vehicle for a targeted suspect and detain others temporarily for officer safety while sorting out identities and immigration status. She said a person may be a U.S. citizen or be in the country legally, and if so, “as soon as we figure that out, we’re gonna let them go.”
Hyde said those encounters can also turn up serious warrants or criminal allegations involving people ICE did not initially know were present. She described situations where officers stop one “bad actor” and learn someone else in the vehicle has a warrant or is wanted for a serious crime in another country. She referenced examples she said have occurred in Massachusetts, including traffic stops that revealed suspects wanted for murder abroad.
Hyde also rejected claims that Maine’s Somali community is being targeted, saying the agency focuses on national security and public safety threats and that arrest postings show “it’s not just one ethnicity or one country of origin.” She described the results as a “melting pot” reflecting ICE’s broader mandate to arrest people who are unlawfully in the country.
As local concern has spread, including school lockdowns and confusion over hoax threats earlier in the week, Hyde blamed what she called political “propaganda” and “rhetoric” about ICE operating in sensitive locations. She said that messaging can “instill fear in communities,” influencing decisions by school superintendents or hospital administrators. Hyde said kids should be able to go to school, people should be able to go to the hospital, and people should be able to go to church and “pray in peace.” She said she would challenge anyone to show ICE “doing something in a school or at a church or at a hospital.”
Hyde also criticized Secretary of State Shenna Bellows for denying confidential license plates to federal law enforcement, as well as state and local officers arguing the decision jeopardizes officer safety and family safety and can compromise investigations. She called compromising investigations “really truthful”, but said it is “the least of anybody’s concerns,” pointing instead to safety risks. Hyde questioned why confidential plates would be taken away and argued Bellows appeared “more concerned with illegal immigrants” than with law enforcement.
On Gov. Janet Mills and LD 1971, Hyde criticized “sanctuary” policies and argued they produce the opposite result supporters claim. Hyde said when someone unlawfully present is charged with a crime, “the simplest thing to do” is for local authorities to notify ICE so ICE can pick the person up rather than seeing them released. Hyde argued that approach reduces ICE’s need to operate in neighborhoods, and that refusing cooperation pushes ICE “boots on the ground” into communities and increases the likelihood of additional arrests when other unlawfully present individuals are encountered during enforcement.
Hyde argued sanctuary policies lead to “more people arrested,” and she questioned where “the justice” is for immigrants who are victimized, stating that “statistically immigrants commit crimes against other immigrants.” She said that in sanctuary jurisdictions, offenders go back out and “they’re gonna reoffend,” likely against other immigrants which she said undercuts claims that sanctuary policies protect immigrant communities.
After that sit-down interview and those comments, Hyde provided The Maine Wire an exclusive statement responding to Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce’s criticism of ICE:
“While Sheriff Kevin Joyce was busy grandstanding and attacking ICE, our officers were risking their lives to keep Cumberland County safe, arresting dangerous criminals and upholding the law. Those same brave law enforcement are grappling with a 3,000% increase in assaults and a staggering 8,000% uptick in death threats because of political antics like these,” said ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde. “Instead of owning up to his own department’s failures, including hiring an illegal alien as a correctional officer, Sheriff Joyce chose to turn on his law enforcement brethren and smear the brave men and women of ICE, but we will not be intimidated or obstructed from doing our congressionally mandated duties. Sheriff Joyce should clean up his own house before criticizing those who actually protect our communities.”
In her interview comments, Hyde said the sheriff is “in charge of his show,” but called it “a bad practice” to hire someone she described as unlawfully present to work in a jail. She said Joyce’s criticism amounted to “Monday morning quarterbacking” and called it “an insult to the brave men and women” who “go out every day and risk their lives” to arrest public safety threats.
Hyde pointed again to what she described as a surge in assaults against ICE officers and said the agency’s job is to make sure officers and agents “go home at night,” arguing that other law enforcement should “clean up your own house before you start looking at ours.”
