Weru 89.9 Fm Blue Hill, Maine Local News And Public Affairs Archives

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco A grassroots environmental and social justice news journal, collaboration of WERU and Sunlight Media Collective. Learn more at sunlightmediacollective.org. As stops, arrests and detentions of immigrant residents within Maine have escalated, including those with work permits, green cards or in legal process of seeking asylum, the Maine legislature is currently considering two bills that would curtail the state’s complicity. LD 1259 would prohibit state and local law enforcement from doing the work of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through so called 287g contracts. A second bill, LD 1971, would prohibit state and local law enforcement from stopping, arresting or detaining a person solely for immigration enforcement reasons. The Trump administration’s national strategy of unfettered mass deportations and campai gn of fear, includes enlisting the cooperation of state and local police forces and use of county jails throughout the country. Both prop