ICE Arrests in Maine Surge in 2026 as Homan Promises ‘A Lot More Enforcement’

Federal immigration arrests in Maine have surged in 2026, already surpassing the previous two years combined, according to newly released government records that provide one of the most detailed looks yet at where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is operating across the state.

And Maine may be about to see even more.

White House Border Czar Tom Homan quietly traveled to northern Maine last week, where he met with federal immigration officials after telling a Maine lawmaker that the state should expect “a lot more enforcement action.”

The new enforcement numbers come from the Deportation Data Project, an independent research project based at the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA.

The Deportation Data Project is not ICE, DHS or another federal agency.

Instead, the project uses Freedom of Information Act litigation to obtain government immigration-enforcement records, which researchers then process and make available to journalists and the public. The latest release contains ICE records through Aug. 6 and was obtained from the federal government on Aug. 21.

The project cautions that it releases the records after an initial review and before conducting its own comprehensive analysis.

Nearly 500 ICE Arrests in Maine

The Maine numbers show a significant increase in federal immigration enforcement.

According to an analysis of the newly released records, 491 ICE arrests resulting in detention occurred in Maine through Aug. 6 this year.

Of those, 56 involved people identified as having criminal convictions, while another 97 involved individuals with pending criminal charges.

The remaining 338, approximately 69 percent, had neither a recorded criminal conviction nor a pending criminal charge under the categories contained in the data.

Looking more broadly at apprehensions, ICE recorded 482 arrests in Maine between Jan. 1 and July 31, compared with 311 during all of 2025 and 169 in 2024.

That means the 2026 total had already surpassed the combined number recorded during the previous two calendar years.

July alone produced 73 Maine ICE arrests, the second-highest monthly total in roughly two and a half years. January saw the largest surge as the Trump administration carried out its highly publicized “Operation Catch of the Day.”

ICE Pushes Back on Interpretation of Data

ICE, however, disputes the suggestion that the figures show the agency is abandoning its focus on criminal offenders.

An ICE spokesperson said the agency has not independently verified the accuracy or methodology used by the Deportation Data Project, despite the project’s assertion that the underlying records were obtained directly from DHS.

ICE told the Maine Wire that agents are “continuing to go after the worst of the worst.”

The agency also pushed back on portraying immigrants without recorded U.S. convictions as necessarily having no criminal history.

“They just don’t have a rap sheet in the U.S.,” an ICE spokesperson said.

ICE further argued that entering the United States illegally is itself a federal offense.

That distinction is important when interpreting the numbers.

Someone listed as having no criminal conviction in the Deportation Data Project should not automatically be described as having no criminal history. The records separately identify pending charges, and the dataset cannot necessarily establish an individual’s complete criminal or immigration history.

Lewiston and South Portland Lead Maine Arrest Locations

The newest federal records contain something previous releases did not: the city where ICE arrests occurred.

That provides a clearer picture of where enforcement has been concentrated.

The largest numbers of ICE arrests recorded in Maine this year were:

• South Portland — 64
• Lewiston — 64
• Scarborough — 63
• Portland — 51
• Biddeford — 43
• Auburn — 31

Together, those six communities account for 316 arrests.

The records indicate ICE activity has been much broader, however, with apprehensions reported in approximately 50 Maine communities during 2026.

Scarborough is particularly notable because ICE operates a field office there and conducts immigration check-ins.

Nearly 80 percent of Maine ICE arrests since January 2024 reportedly occurred “at large” at homes or in public, rather than through transfers from other law enforcement agencies. Roughly one in five of those at-large arrests occurred in Scarborough.

The Deportation Data Project cautions that its new arrest-city information is imperfect. Some locations are missing, and inconsistencies in how city names were entered require researchers to clean the data before drawing conclusions.

Homan Comes to Maine and Promises More Enforcement

The release of the numbers takes on additional significance following Homan’s previously unannounced trip to Maine on Aug. 18.

The Maine Wire first reported Homan’s presence in the state after Republican State Rep. Mike Soboleski of Phillips disclosed the visit during an appearance on WVOM.

The White House subsequently confirmed that Homan visited Maine’s northern border, although it has not publicly provided a complete itinerary or detailed whom he met with.

Before traveling to Maine, Homan appeared at a border seminar in Alexandria Bay, New York, where he spoke directly with Soboleski.

Homan said he was heading to Maine to meet with Border Patrol and ICE officials and determine what resources and information they needed.

“I’m going to Maine now to meet with the border patrol and the ICE folks … to find out what they need, to get more specifics on what the issues are so we can address them,” Homan said.

Then came the statement that could have significant implications for Maine in the coming months.

“You’re going to see a lot more enforcement action in Maine,” Homan told Soboleski.

Homan specifically pointed to the Trump administration’s efforts to terminate Temporary Protected Status for certain immigrants, including Haitians.

He told Soboleski there were “a lot of TPS people in Maine” and said federal authorities were looking for hundreds of thousands of people nationwide for removal following court decisions allowing the administration to move forward with ending certain TPS protections.

Federal figures cited by the Bangor Daily News indicate approximately 715 people with TPS live in Maine, out of roughly 1.3 million nationally.

Homan was seen in Presque Isle during the trip, approximately 15 miles from the Canadian border crossing in Fort Fairfield. Aroostook County contains 13 of Maine’s 25 Canadian border crossings.

The purpose and scope of Homan’s meetings remain unclear.

But his trip, combined with his public promise of increased enforcement and the newly released ICE data, raises the possibility that Maine could see another increase in federal immigration operations heading into the fall.

Maine Enforcement Already Accelerating

That would build on an enforcement operation already moving at a considerably faster pace than in previous years.

After January’s surge, ICE arrests in Maine initially settled to roughly one per day. By late spring, enforcement began increasing again, with June producing one of the year’s largest monthly totals.

The increase mirrors a national trend.

Nearly 50,000 ICE arrests were recorded nationwide in July, the highest monthly total of Trump’s second administration.

Maine has also become an increasingly visible battleground over immigration enforcement following the July 13 fatal shooting of Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero during an ICE operation in Biddeford.

The shooting prompted investigations, protests and renewed scrutiny of federal immigration operations in the state.

Homan’s visit now suggests the administration is not preparing to retreat from Maine.

Instead, the president’s top border enforcement official traveled personally to the state’s northern border, met with the federal personnel carrying out immigration enforcement and publicly predicted that enforcement would increase.

What the Data Can and Cannot Tell Us

There are important limitations to the Deportation Data Project’s findings.

The organization is an independent academic research project, not a federal immigration agency, even though the underlying information comes from government records obtained through FOIA litigation.

The project also cautions researchers about limitations in portions of the federal data, particularly removal records. An ICE arrest, detention and deportation are separate events and should not be treated interchangeably.

The complete Aug. 24 release can be reviewed through the Deportation Data Project’s latest ICE data release, while the underlying ICE datasets and visualization tools are available through its ICE data portal.

Despite those limitations, the trend in Maine is difficult to miss.

ICE enforcement has increased dramatically in 2026, arrests have occurred across dozens of Maine communities, and the year’s total had already surpassed 2024 and 2025 combined before August began.

Now, after a personal visit from the White House border czar, Maine has been put on notice that the increase may not be over.

“You’re going to see a lot more enforcement action in Maine,” Homan said.