LEWISTON, Maine — The Lewiston City Council is poised to fast-track an emergency ordinance aimed at limiting how city employees and departments interact with federal immigration authorities, a move proposed by City Council President David Chittim that is landing with jarring timing after U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R) said the recent wave of stepped-up Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in Maine had been de-escalated.
Chittim’s ordinance, scheduled for a public hearing and a first-and-final passage vote on Tuesday, Feb. 17, is framed as an urgent response to “the presence and current practices” of certain U.S. Department of Homeland Security components in the community. The draft declares those practices are affecting residents’ ability to go to work and school, seek medical care, attend legal proceedings, shop for groceries, access public resources and worship, language the council is using to justify invoking emergency powers and skipping the usual ordinance timetable.
But the council’s emergency push comes after Collins publicly announced on Jan. 29, 2026, that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told her ICE had ended its “enhanced” activities in Maine, with “no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations” in the state, a statement echoed in broad coverage of the crackdown and its political fallout.
That contrast, a declared “emergency” in mid-February after federal officials and Collins signaled the surge had cooled in late January, is likely to sharpen scrutiny of what, exactly, has changed on the ground in Lewiston, and why City Hall is treating the moment as a crisis requiring immediate legislative action.
The ordinance is modeled on L.D. 1971, enacted Jan. 11, 2026, which outlines how local law enforcement agencies in Maine relate to federal immigration authorities, but does not take effect until 90 days after the current legislative session adjourns. Lewiston’s agenda materials say the emergency ordinance is meant to “fill the gap” in the interim, taking effect immediately and expiring 61 days after adoption, with the city charter requiring at least five affirmative votes for passage.
https://www.lewistonmaine.gov/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/6727
Substantively, the draft would bar city employees, acting in their official capacity, from assisting or using municipal resources to facilitate federal “immigration enforcement operations,” except where legally authorized by state or federal law or a judicial order. It also restricts federal access to non-public city facilities, limits cooperation tied to immigration detainers and administrative immigration warrants, and sets narrow exceptions tied to a valid judicial warrant or serious-crime investigations, including trafficking and firearms offenses.
The emergency measure is also arriving as residents continue pressing the council on a stack of local crises that have dominated Lewiston’s civic life: gun violence fears, the ongoing aftershocks of the Oct. 25, 2023 mass shooting, the heated controversy surrounding post-shooting donations and the Lewiston-Auburn Area Response Fund, and persistent budget stress that has forced repeated debates over cuts, staffing and services.
Even within the ICE debate, Lewiston leaders were publicly reacting to signs the federal enforcement uptick was already easing at the end of January, making the council’s decision to invoke emergency ordinance authority in mid-February an especially pointed political choice.
