In a statement issued following former President Donald Trump’s resounding victory over Vice President Kamala Harris last week, the executive director of the Maine American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the nonprofit is “prepared to act” to resist the “dangers” posed by Trump’s return to the presidency.
“For 105 years nationwide and 56 years in Maine, the ACLU has consistently and fearlessly defended all people’s constitutional freedoms and fought politicians’ abuses of power – and we are not stopping now,” ACLU of Maine Executive Director Molly Curren Rowles stated.
“As a proudly non-partisan organization with commitments that transcend election cycles and party politics, we are clear-eyed about the dangers posed by a second Trump presidency and the challenges ahead,” Rowles said.
Rowles said that the Maine ACLU has been preparing for a potential second Trump administration for the past nine months.
“Just like in 2016, we will get to work immediately to resist repression and totalitarianism,” Rowles said.
“In the coming weeks and months, the ACLU of Maine and its counterparts in all 50 states will move forward decisively here in Maine and across the country to vindicate the rights and freedoms of those most vulnerable, to give voice to the values of our multicultural democracy, and to preserve the commitment to justice for all,” she added.
The national ACLU released a roadmap of initiatives they plan to put into motion as soon as Trump is inaugurated in order to thwart the policy mandate he was elected to carry out by the American people.
Those initiatives include a coordinated effort to block the Trump administration’s plan of mass deportations of illegal aliens, providing legal defense to whistleblowers and critics in the second Trump administration, and challenging any policies the ACLU believes to be discriminatory in the courts at the state and local levels.
The director of the national ACLU, Anthony Romero, went so far in his post-election statement to call the potential policies of a second Trump administration “anti-liberty” and “fundamentally anti-American.”
At a September townhall event led by an immigration advocacy organization in Portland regarding the 2024 presidential election, Maine ACLU policy counsel Michael Kebede announced the organization’s intention to work with the State Legislature to pass laws protecting illegal immigrants from deportation, while comparing federal immigration authorities to Nazis in 1930s Germany.
[RELATED: Maine ACLU Lawyer Likens ICE to Nazi Germany, Urges State to Block Illegal Immigrant Deportations…]
“And so, one thing the ACLU hopes to see and will work for, and I hope all of you here will be interested in working toward, is trying to prevent state cooperation with all of the federal government’s deportation efforts,” Kebede said.
In cases when a migrant is in the U.S. illegally, Kebede argued that the State of Maine and local municipalities should “stop cooperating with the federal government” and say “we will not help you deport our neighbors.”
“We have to pass laws — that’s the only thing that’ll put a barrier between federal deportation efforts, federal persecution efforts, the prosecution of people by out of state actors and people in pain,” he added.
[RELATED: Maine ACLU Defends Right to Panhandle on Bangor’s Busiest Roads…]
The Maine ACLU policy counsel labeled supporters of deportation of illegal immigrants as belonging to “vile political communities,” comparing U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Nazi Party of 1930s Germany.
“There’s also the moral consequence of belonging to vile political communities, which I don’t think anyone one of us wants to belong to,” he said.
“When history books write about us and we’re asked, ‘what were you doing when the ICE officers marched into businesses, marched into courthouses, marched into schools and took children, took their parents, and sent them back to countries where the best you can hope for is a meager survival, but in some cases where they died, what were you doing?’” Kebede said, extending his analogizing ICE with the Nazis.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="32419 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=32419">22 Comments
Aclu biggest donors Ford foundation, George Soros open society foundation and Carnagy foundation same old industrial robber barons
@Ken. Kind of ironic. Industrial capitalists robber barons supporting the American communists. Got to love it.
How many times do you hit your thumb with the hammer before you figure out not to hit your thumb with a hammer. Keep overplaying all your cards early and you’ll keep getting destroyed at the polls. People figured out who the real fascists are in this country. You lost big because the black and Hispanic communities figured out the open borders party, aka, the democrats are hurting their communities. Instead they trot out idiots like Obama, or Beyoncé or Sunny Huston to tell non whites they’re too stupid to know who to vote for. Inflation may be down after the Biden and Harris inflation raised prices nearly 20%. Keep fighting common sense and keep losing elections.
Pretty sure the new boss of the irs would like to see aclu’s books. Don’t worry, not targeted just like Lois didn’t target.
Non partisan organization my foot.
Isn’t that the same ACLU founded by the avowed communist Roger Nash Baldwin?
Loved Homan’s response when he was asked about the separation of families. “They don’t have to be separated, they can be sent back together as a family.”
Give us a rest.
all of the ACLU should be audited by the IRS and verify their ‘lawyers’ have valid licenses to practice law in the 50 states. Its called justice, enjoy!!!! elections have consequences!!!
F U to the ACLU. They should be working with ICE
Before she a failed Democratic Senate Candidate (Hands Up, Don’t Shoot), Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows was the Executive Director of…the Maine Civil Liberties Union
I hope the ACLU and affiliates keep up the volume of this non-sensical and hysterical diatribe, we’ll have government by common sense from now on. So thanks, ACLU, keep it going.
Drawing false moral equivalencies’ between an invasion of our country by illegally walking in and what the Nazis did in the 1930’s? Isn’t there anyone at their institution educated?
More, more, more resistance please!! Keep doubling and tripling down on the unhinged rhetoric and response to the election of DJT! I hope AOC is the candidate in 2028
Past director of the Maine ACLU, Sheena Bellows, tried to illegally remove President Trump from the Maine ballot. As we now watch the ACLU “leaders” once again make fools of themselves, we know why she tried to do that. Now is time to impeach and remove Sheena from her appointed post.
So that was a sales pitch if I ever heard one. “all people’s constitutional freedoms and fought politicians’ abuses of power” – Bullsugar! The ACLU is very selective about who they help and who they will stand up to. They are not non-partisan.
I’m old enough to remember when the ACLU actually did something good and had some respect, now they are just a bunch of left wing whining btch’s
“vindicate the rights and freedoms of those most vulnerable” Does that include people in the womb waiting to be born?—- fat chance.
I see it now : Elon Musk says “ Maine ACLU closes its doors after all federal and state funds are relocated to other “ more deserving Americans “
Apparently they have not yet processed that their VALUABLE defenses of Skokie have now become malignant aggression using the values of Herbert Marcuse, DEI and Critical Theory. And apparently they have not processed the memo the public sent 11/5, not that these ideas are rejected, but that they are suicidal for organizations which are now seen to be doubling down. Their site post election still insists that Trump is Project 2025. The 3 SD left of center left, simply cannot adapt. #DARWIN
Resist all you want! There is an army of Trump supporters in Maine just itching to make you comply!
Maine ACLU …….No Soup for You !
Time to dry up the funding .
The AACLU: The Anti-American Civil Liberties Union. Representing non-citizens before American citizens is our Maine objective.
marxists are relentless.