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'Rot in Hell!' 'F*ck You, Nazis!': Mainers React With Fury as Horrors of ICE Operations Multiply
"ICE is just kidnapping people," said US Senate candidate Graham Platner. "We all need to turn out."
Jan 23, 2026
As the Trump administration continues to insist it is targeting violent criminals as it ramps up immigration enforcement operations in Maine—while releasing details about just a small fraction of the more than 100 people federal agents have reportedly arrested so far—residents in the state are expressing growing anger over the operations that have seen their neighbors, friends, and coworkers hauled away in unmarked cars by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In at least two cases in Portland on Thursday, ICE agents pulled drivers out of their cars and left the vehicles running in the street.
A crowd gathered as agents detained a Lyft driver near the University of Southern Maine, with residents calling the masked officers "Nazis" and demanding, "If you're so proud, show your face!"
"Rot in hell!" one person yelled, while others said, "Fuck you, Nazis!"
PORTLAND, MAINE- Near University of Southern Maine, these are ICE Agents snatching a Lyft driver right out of their car and leaving the car in the middle of the road blocking traffic. pic.twitter.com/4Oo6OofDrc
— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) January 23, 2026
Another man, identified by the Maine Monitor as Juan Sebastian Carvajal-Munoz, was cut off by an unmarked car with tinted windows while driving in downtown Portland Wednesday morning. Carvajal-Munoz, a civil engineer from Colombia, is in the US on a work visa according to his colleagues, and earned a master's degree from University of Maine.
The agents moved rapidly, trying to pry open Carvajal-Munoz's window before smashing it and pulling him out of the car, hauled him into their vehicle, and drove away.
“In less than two minutes, they smashed his window and dragged him out of the car,” an eyewitness, Jesse Smith, told the Monitor. “He was compliant. He wasn’t resisting or anything.”
A background check system from TransUnion found that Carvajal-Munoz has no criminal record, despite the Department of Homeland Security's persistent claims that ICE is targeting the "worst of the worst" violent criminals—a claim the agency's own data does not support.
The agents left Carvajal-Munoz's car running with the window smashed and the engineer's belongings and keys in the passenger seat. A passerby drove the vehicle into a nearby parking lot.
Another incident on Wednesday evening, in which several ICE agents stopped a corrections officer recruit in his vehicle and detained him, provoked outrage from Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce.
The man's record was "squeaky clean," said Joyce at a press conference where he explained the recruit was hired in 2024 after an extensive background check that is standard for his office's staffing procedures, complete with fingerprinting and a polygraph test. He is eligible to work in the US until 2029, as verified through a federally required I-9 form.
In a video of the arrest, he was heard telling the officers he could prove his identity if they allowed him to get his ID as they handcuffed him and ignored his pleas.
The Sheriff in Cumberland County in Maine said that ICE took one of their black Corrections recruits that’s a U.S citizen & you can & him telling them who he is and where his ID his & they piled on him instead! They all need to be arrested! Now everyone is seeing what’s happening pic.twitter.com/y8m1qgcdY0
— Suzie rizzio (@Suzierizzo1) January 22, 2026
“Every indication we found was that this was an individual trying to do all the right things," Joyce said, adding that ICE later inexplicably claimed to him that the recruit was in the US illegally.
The sheriff also criticized the agents' methods during the arrest.
"There were five to seven ICE agents there," said Joyce. "We've arrested some dangerous people on the back roads of Cumberland County with three or less deputies, yet this was a show of force or a show of whatever they were trying to do."
Of the agents' decision to leave the recruit's car running in the street, Joyce added, "Folks, that's bush-league policing."
Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce had some harsh words about ICE detaining one of his corrections recruits. He described the agents' actions as "bush league policing." https://t.co/ZfnNF4Vq6K pic.twitter.com/v2ucdT73xI
— WMTW TV (@WMTWTV) January 22, 2026
Joyce was one of more that 10 sheriffs who attended a meeting last year with border czar Tom Homan to learn about the Trump administration's alleged plan to remove violent criminals from the streets.
“The book and the movie don’t add up,” Joyce said.
Democratic US Senate candidate Graham Platner addressed the recent arrests in a video he posted on social media from the Copenhagen airport as he travels back to Maine from Norway, saying, "Our home is under attack" and calling on state leaders to allow law enforcement to directly act to protect Mainers from ICE.
"ICE is just kidnapping people," he said. "People who are here legally, including local law enforcement. I'm sick and tired of hearing that legally, there's nothing that law enforcement in Maine can do to protect citizens from these thugs. I very much urge our state leadership to empower local law enforcement to do what it's supposed to do, which is protect our communities. Right now our communities need protecting from the authoritarian overreach of ICE. And if they aren't going to do that then we all need to turn out."
Maine has been invaded by a masked secret police force.
They have taken people who are here legally. They have taken people with no criminal records. They have taken a local police officer.
Even local law enforcement are not safe from ICE.
Our home is under attack. pic.twitter.com/iqZHs2Ovbp
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) January 23, 2026
A rally is planned in Lewiston on Saturday, and Portland residents are planning to gather Friday evening to protest ICE's surge in the state.
Mainers have taken cueseng from communities in cities such as Minneapolis and Chicago, where ICE has been met with strong shows of resistance to the Trump administration's anti-immigrant enforcement in recent months.
Back Cove Books in Portland reported Thursday that it was ordering a second shipment of free whistles for community members to warn neighbors when ICE is in the vicinity or conducting an arrest, as it was "very quickly running out" of its first shipment in just one day.
Businesses across the city have placed signs designed by a local artist declaring "NO ICE" in their windows.
And about 75 protesters banged pots and pans outside a hotel where they believe, based on reports, that ICE agents are staying in Portland on Thursday night.
Panagioti Tsolkas, communications manager for the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, told Common Dreams that the group has trained hundreds of volunteers to help verify reports of ICE operations. Other local groups have reported huge numbers of residents volunteering to deliver groceries to immigrants and people of color who don't feel safe leaving home.
"This community is engaged and not just lowering their heads or turning away," Tsolkas said. "Maine also really values itself as a welcoming place. And that culture has been developed, especially with the refugee resettlement program and population. That's part of the reason that Maine is being targeted, is because it has a history of being a welcoming place and accepting place."
Despite stereotypes about Maine being "remote and cold," he added, "I think [what] people are hearing and seeing is that people in Maine really pride themselves as being a place that has a welcoming value as a core principle."
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2 Maine Republicans Say Lewiston Mass Shooting Was God's Retribution for Abortion Rights
"Viewing mass shooters as instruments of God seems like it's the perfect next step for Republicans," said one critic. "It combines everything that drives the modern Republican Party."
Apr 11, 2024
Two Maine state Republican lawmakers on Thursday were formally censured for saying during a legislative debate that the deadliest shooting in the state's history was the result of God's wrath over abortion, and issued apologies—but rights advocates said their views should not be treated as an aberration in the GOP.
"Viewing mass shooters as instruments of God seems like it's the perfect next step for Republicans," said writer Mark Sumner. "It combines everything that drives the modern Republican Party."
State Rep. Michael Lemelin (R-88) invoked last year's shooting in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday night during a debate over L.D. 227, a proposal to protect healthcare providers from being targeted by other states' restrictions on gender-affirming and reproductive care.
Lemelin urged his colleagues to consider last year's passage of L.D. 1619, which expanded access to abortion later in pregnancy and went into effect on October 25—the same day a gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a restaurant in Lewiston, killing 18 people and injuring 13 others.
"When 1619 passed and went into law on October 25, you told God life doesn't matter," Lemelin said. "Keep in mind that the law came into effect on October 25. God heard you and the horrible events on October 25 happened."
Lemelin added that there would be "severe consequences" if the House passed L.D. 227, and also tied recent severe rain and snowstorms in Maine to God's opposition to the state's support for abortion rights.
"Radical religiosity is becoming far too common in mainstream politics," said Ryan Fecteau, a Democratic former Maine House speaker. "It is dangerous and threatens good governance."
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle denounced Lemelin's comments, but the outcry didn't stop Rep. Shelley Rudnicki (R-67) from rising to tell her colleagues she agreed "with Rep. Lemelin and everything he said."
"The GOP is now blaming mass shootings on abortion," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. "Seriously."
When L.D. 227 later passed in a vote of 80-70, Rudnicki called it "a very sad day for Maine."
Lemelin has previously downplayed the Covid-19 pandemic—just as then-President Donald Trump, Fox News personality Sean Hannity, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and others did in 2020—and called the climate crisis a "hoax," a view also shared by numerous Republican politicians.
The House voted unanimously to censure Lemelin and Rudnicki, requiring them to deliver "brief, identical apologies on the House floor" that allowed them "to resume their ability to speak and vote."
State House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross (D-118) told the lawmakers Thursday that their remarks were "extremely offensive and intentionally harmful to the victims and the families of the Lewiston tragedy, the House of Representatives, and the people of Maine."
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US Appeals Court Upholds Illinois Assault Weapons Ban Amid Calls for Federal Law
One lawyer said it is "proof that these laws are consistent with the Second Amendment and can—and should—be upheld by courts across the country."
Nov 04, 2023
Illinois Democrats and gun control advocates on Friday welcomed a federal appeals court decision upholding the state's ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines amid renewed demands for a similar restrictions nationwide in the wake of a mass shooting in Maine.
"The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed what gun safety advocates have said from day one—the Protect Illinois Communities Act is a commonsense law that will keep Illinoisans safe," said Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who signed the law that state legislators passed after a July 4, 2022 massacre at a parade in Highland Park, a Chicago suburb.
"Despite constant attacks by the gun lobby that puts ideology over people's lives, here in Illinois we have stood up and said 'no more' to weapons of war on our streets," added Pritzker. "This is a victory for the members of the General Assembly who stood alongside families, students, and survivors who worked so hard to make this day a reality. Now Congress must act so Illinois is not an island surrounded by states with weak protections."
Illinois state Rep. Bob Morgan (D-58)—who represents Highland Park, was at the parade with his young children, and spearheaded the legislative fight for the law—similarly celebrated the new ruling "a huge win" while also calling for federal legislation.
Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson also welcomed the decision, saying: "This landmark legislation is an important step for our communities, providing commonsense gun control measures that have been so desperately needed in our city and throughout the state. This decisive measure will aid in keeping weapons of war out of our neighborhoods and off our streets, creating safer communities for all."
The three-judge appellate panel collectively considered six cases challenging state and local bans: four out of the Southern District of Illinois; one against the state, Chicago, and Cook County; and another involving a firearm shop owner from suburban Naperville and the National Association for Gun Rights—who unsuccessfully sought an intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The gun violence prevention group Brady served as counsel for the city of Naperville in the case. In response to the "important victory," Douglas Letter, the organization's chief legal officer, declared that "states and cities should have the right to stop these weapons of war from decimating our communities, and this ruling demonstrates that assault weapon and large-capacity magazine bans are indeed constitutional."
"When the victims of the Highland Park shooting were gunned down by an assault weapon, their local and state leaders took a stand to say enough is enough," he said. "The gun industry feels threatened by the groundswell of voices trying to hold them accountable, and after today, they should feel even more unsteady."
Everytown Law executive director Eric Tirschwell highlighted that the the Chicago-based court's ruling notably came after right-wing U.S. Supreme Court determined last year in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen that gun restrictions must be "consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."
The 2-1 decision Friday "to uphold this lifesaving law is not only a victory for gun safety," Tirschwell said, "it also marks the first significant appeals court decision on this issue since the Supreme Court's decision in Bruen and is proof that these laws are consistent with the Second Amendment and can—and should—be upheld by courts across the country."
U.S. Judges Diane Wood and Frank Easterbrook—respectively appointed by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan—supported upholding the state and local laws, while Judge Michael Brennan, an appointee of President Donald Trump, dissented.
"The Second Amendment to the Constitution recognizes an individual right to 'keep and bear arms. Of that there can be no doubt, in the wake of the Supreme Court's decisions," Wood wrote, citing cases including Bruen. "But as we know from long experience with other fundamental rights, such as the right to free speech, the right peaceably to assemble, the right to vote, and the right to free exercise of religion, even the most important personal freedoms have their limits."
"Government may punish a deliberately false fire alarm; it may condition free assembly on the issuance of a permit; it may require voters to present a valid identification card; and it may punish child abuse even if it is done in the name of religion," she continued. "The right enshrined in the Second Amendment is no different."
Wood also pointed out that the ruling pertains to preliminary injunctive relief, so the panel did not "rule definitively on the constitutionality of the act or any of the municipal ordinances," meaning that the policies could face future challenges.
The decision in Illinois coincided with President Joe Biden's trip to Lewiston, Maine, where a mass shooter last month killed a total of 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar before being found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Biden—who is seeking reelection next year—and others in his administration have called for reinstating a federal assault weapons ban. After the Maine shooting, Vice President Kamala Harris said that "it is a false choice to suggest we must choose between either upholding the Second Amendment or passing reasonable gun safety laws to save lives. Congress can and must make background checks universal. Pass red flag laws. Ban high-capacity magazines. And renew the assault weapons ban."
Such policies are unlikely to pass during the current session, considering the makeup of Congress—though after the carnage in his hometown of Lewiston, Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) last month endorsed an assault weapons ban and sought forgiveness for his past opposition to it.
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