More ICE arrests so far this year in Maine than previous two combined, data show

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more people in the state so far in 2026 than in the previous two years combined, and those arrests have overwhelmingly been people who did not have criminal convictions.

These are takeaways from the latest data obtained by the Deportation Data Project through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, analyzed by Maine Morning Star. 

The new data from March 3 to Aug. 6 provide an updated look at every ICE encounter, detainer request, arrest, book-in to detention, and removal since October 2022, though it has some limitations. For example, around 5% of arrests do not show where they were made.

Of 491 ICE arrests that led to detentions in Maine through Aug. 6 of this year, nearly 89% were people who did not have criminal convictions. 

ICE apprehended 56 people convicted of a crime — but only one person with a violent criminal conviction — and 97 people with pending criminal charges. Comparatively, the agency detained 338 people this year with no criminal conviction or charge.

“When you look at the data, there’s no public safety risk justification that can be found,” said Ruben Torres, advocacy and policy manager for the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition. 

The highest monthly arrests this year was 208 in January, when ICE launched a large-scale operation in the state. There was another spike of 74 arrests in June. 

Most of these arrests were of people originally from Angola, followed by Ecuador, Guatemala and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, respectively. 

On Saturday, ICE arrested a Cumberland County Jail corrections officer originally from Angola. He is at least the fourth jail officer in Maine arrested during President Donald Trump’s second term so far. 

Looking at all arrests, including those that did not result in detention stays, there were 497 in Maine this year. 

The data also confirm ICE’s operations are happening across the state, with apprehensions reported in 50 different towns so far in 2026. 

The Trump administration has indicated that federal operations are expected to ramp up. 

Border czar Tom Homan recently told state Rep. Mike Soboleski, R-Phillips, “You’re going to see a lot more enforcement action in Maine,” which he noted was because of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for immigrants from Haiti and Syria. 

Nationally, federal immigration agents arrested nearly 50,000 people in July, higher than any previous month in the Trump administration, according to the data obtained through records requests. That’s slightly lower than the total reported directly by the feds. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, had told Maine Morning Star’s sister site Stateline that it arrested about 51,000 immigrants in July. 

In the latest data ICE shared via the FOIA lawsuit, the agency removed the “apprehension type” field, which had specified whether an arrest was listed as targeted or collateral, so insight into whether those detained by ICE were the subject of targeted field operations cannot be determined.  

According to Lisa Parisio, policy director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, the majority of arrests in recent months are “happening as people are leaving their house to go to work, leaving work at the end of the day, and then the more random racial profiling pick ups.”