Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement surge into Maine has ended just a week after it began, Sen. Susan Collins announced Thursday.
She said she got that assurance directly from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whom the Maine Republican had been lobbying to pull back the extra federal forces.
Ms. Collins said both U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection will continue their regular activities, but the surge won’t continue.
“I appreciate the secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine,” the senator said.
ICE said it made 206 arrests from Jan. 20-24 “despite the organized efforts from activist groups, radical politicians and protesters.”
The agency said demonstrators forced officers to give up on arresting some targets, including one “known drug dealer.”
ICE highlighted 10 of those arrests, pointing to migrants charged with assault, domestic violence, child endangerment and a number of cases of driving under the influence of alcohol.
“The early success of this operation displays how effectively ICE officers can operate anywhere and in any environment,” said ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde.
DHS had announced the surge as a response to what it called “sanctuary politicians” in Maine.
Administration officials say they are targeting the “worst of the worst,” but Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said some of the 200 arrested “have no criminal record.”
“The reported end of ICE’s ’enhanced operation’ in Maine does not end the pain and suffering that they have inflicted on communities across our state — people who have been terrorized, mothers who have been separated from their children, businesses who have been threatened, all by their own government,” Ms. Mills said in a statement.
The latest action in Maine comes as the Trump administration is eyeing a drawdown of personnel in Minnesota, where some 3,000 ICE and CBP personnel have been deployed.
This month’s killing of two U.S. citizens engaged in anti-ICE protests has forced the Trump White House into a rethink.
But border czar Tom Homan said the drawdown is not a retreat.
“We are not surrendering the president’s mission on immigration enforcement,” he said.
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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