The planned circle-of-unity handholding Friday by officials in Maine’s largest anti-ICE beachhead got derailed even before it got cancelled.
City and county officials claimed they dropped the idea of the get-together press confab after court administrators worried that protestors pro and con could disrupt their routine.
But behind the scenes two of the featured headliners have presented opposing views of whether to cooperate with federal immigration police.
Portland Mayor Mark Dion, much in keeping with the liberal city’s anti-ICE narrative, blasted the agency’s reported plans to enter his kingdom.
Dion said he “rejects the need for the deployment of ICE agents into our neighborhoods.”
Awkwardly, Dion was once the boss of the other headliner – Kevin Joyce, who now holds the job Dion held for twelve years: Cumberland County sheriff.
As sheriff, Dion promoted Joyce to chief deputy in 2003.
Dion chose not to seek re-election in 2010 – the year Joyce was elected to succeed him in the top county law-enforcement job.
Joyce as Dion’s successor has made no secret of his support for ICE.
“I swore an oath that I would uphold state, local, and federal laws, so to do anything different would be improper for me,” Joyce said late last year as county commissioners were considering canceling their contract holding federal inmates.
“I will continue to hold ICE inmates until the law is changed or a court decides it’s unconstitutional and tells me otherwise,” added Joyce, now in his fourth decade as a county cop.
