AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills (D) and Attorney General Aaron Frey (D) say they are demanding answers from the Trump Administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reported arresting 206 people in a recent “enhanced” enforcement operation in Maine.
In a Jan. 30, 2026, letter addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, Mills and Frey demanded “full information on every person detained” during the operation and condemned what they described as secret arrests that “tore families apart and terrorized communities across the state.”
The letter follows an ICE press release issued Thursday claiming 206 arrests in Maine. Mills and Frey said the agency has publicly disclosed limited information about just 10 of those individuals.
They pointed to news reports indicating some of the people arrested “appear to have been here legally and had committed no crime,” which they said directly contradicts the administration’s claim it was pursuing “the worst of the worst.” The governor and attorney general said ICE’s actions separated parents from young children and left families facing eviction, financial instability and fear, without clarity about where loved ones were being held.
Mills and Frey demanded the federal government provide the identity of every person arrested, the legal basis for each arrest, the current location of each detainee, and the federal government’s plans for everyone.
“There are people across our state today who do not know where their loved ones are because of you,” Mills and Frey wrote. “That is unacceptable, and it is not only a violation of their Constitutional rights, but it is a threat to the Constitutional rights guaranteed to us all. The people of Maine deserve answers, and they deserve accountability.”
“In America, we do not have secret police. In America, we do not engage in secret arrests,” they continued. “If you have the warrants, then show them. The people of Maine are entitled to this basic information.”
The letter also demands that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security disclose how many federal agents were deployed to Maine during the operation and identify the supervising officers responsible for the enforcement activity and their ranks.
