There has been a huge bump in donations to the American Civil Liberties Union after President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration late last week, and it’s also being felt in Maine.
Nationally, the ACLU has received more than $24 million in donations since Saturday, the first full day of Trump’s order that barred millions of refugees, and citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, from entering the United States.
Rachel Healy of the ACLU of Maine hasn’t gotten to that level, but it’s hearing from a lot of people.
“Support in Maine has largely been an interest in volunteering and engaging with our issues. We have had a lot of first-time donors who are giving what they can — lots of small donations,” she says. “We are just feeling really buoyed by all this support and knowing this work is going to be carried forward by so many newly engaged and newly activated people across the country, joining with those who have been doing this work all along.”
Healy says the ACLU in Maine will be paying close attention in the coming months to Trump’s anti-immigration policies, as well as any voter-suppression efforts and efforts to abridge the rights of women and LGBTQ people.