Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins announced on Jan. 29, after a long call with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, that Noem had agreed to stop the “enhanced” activities launched by ICE in Maine. They will resume their “normal” operations instead, according to Collins. DHS has not confirmed or denied Senator Collins’ report. Protests and mobilizations are continuing.
ICE announced on Jan. 21 that it had launched an immigration enforcement surge in Maine which it outrageously called “Operation Catch of the Day.”
That cold-calculated dehumanization of immigrants, legal and illegal, horrified many Maine’s citizens. Portsmouth Press Herald, the most widely-distributed newspaper in Maine, headlined its Letters to the Editor column on Jan. 28, “What’s In a Name? Mainers Express Disgust at `Catch of the Day’.” The column contained eight letters to the editor, each of which, in their own way, conveyed the message: “Please remember our humanity. Remember, we are all people, not the depersonalized and degrading term ICE is using it in its operation in Maine,” as the first letter stated. Wrote another: “The phrase turns human beings into consumables: something to be caught, served and sold…. When people become `catches,’ their lives become expendable.”
