Nearly 3,000 people have signed a petition asking the Cumberland County Jail to stop housing people in ICE custody, according to the group No ICE for ME.
Brendan McQuade is an organizer with the group, which submitted the petition at Monday night's Cumberland County Commissioners meeting.
"We see this as a matter of, you know, community defense," he said. "To defend undocumented and immigrant Mainers against the immediate threat of deportation, but also to defend all of our freedoms from government overreach."
Sheriff Kevin Joyce did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At a previous Commissioners meeting, Joyce said he's being squeezed from both directions.
The Trump administration included Cumberland County on a now-deleted list of jurisdictions it accused of being "sanctuaries" for not cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
