ICE arrests 2 people outside the Cumberland County courthouse
Immigration and Customs Enforcement took two people into custody outside the Cumberland County courthouse in Portland on Tuesday.
The incident was captured in several videos and later confirmed by an ICE spokesperson.
The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, which oversees an independent statewide hotline for reports of ICE activity and arrests, said agents apprehended a husband and a wife who had just left the courthouse.
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The coalition denounced the arrests, saying they will discourage victims and witnesses from reporting crimes, and others from participating in state legal proceedings — even if their absence could be used against them in immigration court.
“Immigrants now face a punishing bind: missing court can lead to removal, while appearing in or around a courthouse may expose them to detention,” the coalition said in a statement on Wednesday.
The ICE spokesperson said on Wednesday that the arrests were part of a “targeted enforcement operation.” The agency said both people are from countries in Africa, and that they had entered the country legally about 10 years ago but overstayed their authorized periods of stay.
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According to court records, one of the people detained was indicted earlier this year on one Class C count of theft by unauthorized taking for allegedly stealing from Walmart in late 2025 and early 2026. The person was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon.
In one video posted to Instagram by the mutual aid organization Project Relief, two agents, including one wearing a vest that said “Police ICE,” handcuffed the pair in a parking area that runs alongside the courthouse on Newbury Street, while a third agent watched nearby.
The coalition said observers reported seeing ICE vehicles in the area around the courthouse for much of Tuesday.
District Attorney Jacqueline Sartoris said her staff was aware that agents had been inside the courthouse that morning to look over a public list of daily criminal hearings that includes defendants’ names. The arrests did not occur on courthouse property, Barbara Cardone, a spokesperson for the judicial branch, said Tuesday afternoon.
Cardone said the courts have no control over arrests that happen off-site.
A city spokesperson said Portland police had not been made aware of the incident Tuesday. The police department is located nearby at 109 Middle St.
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The coalition said these were the first arrests outside the Cumberland County courthouse that it’s aware of, but that there have been other reports of arrests outside the state courthouse on Lisbon Street in Lewiston.
Courthouses, like schools and healthcare facilities, were generally treated as “safe areas” from ICE arrests until an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in early 2025, removing those protections.
The coalition said it’s encouraging people to use online options to pay fines or fees if they’re afraid of going to court. It also hopes judges will use virtual options for immigrant victims, defendants and other parties who are required to appear in court.
Last month, a new state law took effect barring employees at public schools, state libraries and state healthcare facilities from allowing federal immigration officials to enter those properties without a valid judicial warrant.
The law doesn’t include courthouses, which some immigrant rights advocates have called a gray area in the state. Max Brooks, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, highlighted a new law in Massachusetts that the governor signed last week barring civil immigration arrests from occurring at courthouses without judicial warrants.
“With the presence of rogue agents, people are less likely to testify in court, attend their own hearing, serve as a witness, seek protection from abuse orders, or even call 911 for help in the first place,” Brooks said. “Courts cannot operate fairly or effectively when people do not feel safe coming forward.”
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Cardone said that, generally, ICE officers receive the same privileges and restrictions in Maine courthouses as all law enforcement officers.
“They have access to any information available to the public, but not information that is nonpublic,” Cardone said in an email. “Law enforcement officers have full access to all public areas of the courthouse, but do not have access to nonpublic areas unless they are on duty escorting prisoners to and from holding cells (sheriff or corrections officers).”
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Tagged: Cumberland County Superior Court, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, maine judicial branch
Emily Allen covers courts for the Portland Press Herald. It's her favorite beat so far — before moving to Maine in 2022, she reported on a wide range of topics for public radio in West Virginia and was. More by Emily Allen
