ICE Pulls Detainees from Maine Jails, Sending Dozens to Out-of-State Facilities

By Maine News Now Staff | January 2026

The sound of moving boxes and closing doors echoed through the Cumberland County Jail in late January when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents suddenly packed up and relocated dozens of detainees. For the immigrants inside and the lawyers working to help them, the immediate question was simple but unsettling: where are they being taken?

The answer, it turned out, was far from Maine.

Nearly 20 of the approximately 60 detainees being monitored by the University of Maine's Human Rights and Refugee clinic were flown to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana. Others were transferred to contracted correctional facilities in Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Some were released with assistance from immigration attorneys. But many families and lawyers were left scrambling to locate their clients and loved ones.

The Breaking Point

The removals came just days after Sheriff Kevin Joyce publicly criticized ICE's arrest of one of his own corrections officers, calling the agency's tactics "bush league." According to Joyce, ICE officials were not pleased with his feedback.

"They didn't like the feedback I gave them regarding their police tactics," Joyce said in a recent interview.

Despite the friction, Joyce said he never intended for ICE to pull its detainees entirely. He had spent more than a year pushing back against immigrant rights advocates who protested at county commission meetings, urging leaders to eliminate any agreements between the jail and federal immigration officials. The protesters argued the county was complicit in what they described as increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration—enforcement that targeted immigrants based on race and arrested people who had traditionally been allowed to work and live in their communities while awaiting immigration court proceedings.

Sheriff Joyce said he warned county commissioners of a consequence that, at the time, fell on deaf ears.

"This group thought that if we don't hold ICE inmates, ICE goes away," Joyce said, referring to the protesters. "Guess what? ICE does not go away. They still operate. They just do it somewhere else."

A Growing Distance

Anna Welch, who directs the Human Rights and Refugee clinic, said her team had been meeting with detainees at the Cumberland County Jail for nearly a year, conducting more than 300 legal consultations. That close proximity made a tangible difference.

"We were able to serve a lot of people because it was right in our own backyard," Welch said. "It was easier for folks to access their family and their communities and their lawyers."

The clinic had also been assisting detainees brought to the jail from other states—far from their families. Welch estimated roughly 60% of the detainees held at the facility were not Maine residents. That statistic, she said, played into commissioners' eventual decision to sever ties with ICE.

Commissioner James Cloutier acknowledged he was initially hesitant to support ending the county's agreement with ICE, noting the jail had been holding various federal detainees for more than 30 years. But after ICE activity "changed drastically" in recent years, he said his perspective shifted.

"When it became obvious that ICE is a rogue organization that has no standards that an American ought to recognize, then it was certainly time to take the next step," Cloutier said.

In April, county commissioners formally voted to remove ICE from the jail's contract with the U.S. Marshals Service—a vote that came three months after ICE had already made its own decision to leave.

Similar Exodus in Wiscasset

The departures were not limited to Portland. Administrators at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset confirmed that ICE transferred 11 detainees from that facility in late January, and no new ICE detainees have been booked there since.

An ICE spokesperson declined to confirm or deny the withdrawals, citing "security purposes."

A Surge in Legal Need

The upheaval has created new obstacles for immigrants caught in the enforcement net. The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project of Maine received more than 70 requests for help in January alone, when the Department of Homeland Security carried out an operation focused on Maine. Many of those arrested were being held out of state.

Melissa Brennan, ILAP's co-legal director, said the organization has been filing habeas petitions in federal court as quickly as possible. These petitions, which allege unconstitutional detention, often result in judges temporarily blocking transfers of petitioners outside the court's jurisdiction. The strategy has become increasingly common.

According to an analysis by ProPublica, habeas filings nationwide reached record highs in the first year of the second Trump administration—more than in the previous three administrations combined. In Massachusetts alone, there have been more than 1,400 habeas cases since January 1, 2025, and more than 260 in New Hampshire.

Brennan noted that immigrants detained in New England benefit from a federal appeals court decision from four years ago, which requires the government to prove whether a detainee is a flight risk or a threat to public safety before denying bond. Courts in other parts of the country place that burden on the detainees themselves.

But distance complicates everything.

"There are also the general challenges of maintaining consistent communication with clients who have limited and unpredictable access to phones, navigating varying detention center procedures, managing time-sensitive filings from afar, and ensuring that no critical detail is lost despite the physical distance between attorney and client," Brennan said in a written statement.

Conditions Under Scrutiny

Advocates have raised alarms about conditions at some of the facilities where Maine detainees have been sent. Attorneys have publicly decried the treatment of immigrants held at the ICE field office in Burlington, Massachusetts, describing conditions as inhumane. They are pushing for greater transparency about conditions and inmate counts at such facilities.

It remains unclear how many Maine immigrants are being held in Border Patrol detention at field offices, which both federal officials and immigration attorneys say are not designed for long-term confinement.

What Remains

Despite the breakup with ICE, the Cumberland County Jail still honors detainer requests from the agency, meaning ICE can take individuals into federal custody after they have completed sentences for local criminal matters. A new agreement governing those detainers was signed in July 2025, according to public records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine.

Sheriff Joyce said ICE serves an important public safety function, even as he pushed back against recent arrests of what he called law-abiding asylum seekers. He reiterated that his criticism of the agency was never meant to result in a complete withdrawal.

Welch, meanwhile, said her clinic will continue its work—though the task has grown more difficult.

"It was easier for folks to access their family and their communities and their lawyers," she said. "But that's also problematic, that it's in our backyard."