Capital Area Interfaith Justice Coalition
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Augusta schools, residents aim to protect immigrant families

centralmaine.com/2025/09/17/augusta-schools-residents-aim-to-protect-immigrant-families

 

AUGUSTA — Any U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who come to Augusta schools looking for a parent or student suspected of being undocumented will be sent to the principal’s office, officials said during a recent panel discussion on immigration.

That’s what the chairwoman of the Augusta Board of Education, Martha Witham, told about 100 people Tuesday at the event held at Lithgow Library. The city’s schools, like many others in Maine, have a plan in place should ICE agents come seeking to detain people alleged to be in the country illegally.

She said if ICE agents present themselves at any of the city’s schools, they must identify themselves, and not wear masks. They need to have a judicial warrant signed by a judge, and, if allowed in at all, will be required to wait in the principal’s office for Superintendent Mike Tracy, who according to the policy must be notified.

The statement prompted cheers from attendees at the event, which was sponsored by the Capital Area Interfaith Social Justice Coalition.

Augusta schools have more than 200 immigrant students, about 10% of the district’s enrollment.

Lisa Parisio, policy director and an attorney for Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project in Maine, which provides attorneys to help immigrants in Maine facing detainment and deportation, said the Trump administration’s deportation efforts have immigrants across the county scared to go about their daily lives, withdrawing from participation in their communities, and even keeping their children out of school.

She said constitutional rights are being trampled and some ICE agents are using administrative warrants to detain people, not judicial warrants that are signed by a judge, which she said are required by the law.

Parisio said the organization has tracked 19 cases so far where police have detained drivers, passengers and, in at least one case, a passerby, and at least 40 people have been handed over to immigration officials in Maine as a result of a traffic stop.

Last week a Portland parent was detained and taken into custody on an access road to a Portland elementary school, causing concern among city and school officials, and parents.

In a written statement in response, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement had taken 42-year-old Denis Rivera Martinez into custody Sept. 11. She said the Honduran man is in the country illegally.

Portland police spokesperson Brad Nadeau confirmed that officers arrested Martinez, who is accused of Class D domestic violence assault, on Wednesday,one day before he was taken into ICE custody. Martinez was released that day on $100 bail.

Schools should have a plan in place for potential enforcement action by ICE, Parisio said.

Witham and Tracy said Augusta schools do, based upon a model procedure also used by other Maine communities.

Tracy said Augusta schools also have a cultural liaison worker, hired with grant funding from Catholic Charities, who works with the families of Augusta’s immigrant students.

Parisio and Jon Godbout, executive director of Augusta-based Capital Area New Mainers Project, said immigrant families should not only know their rights, but also have a plan for what to do if a parent is detained to make sure children are still picked up from school or elderly relatives still get medications in their absence.

Godbout said Capital Area New Mainers was able to assist one local family in preventing the deportation of a member and helped them obtain a work permit. He was seeking asylum after fleeing persecution in his home country and was detained by ICE and taken to Ohio. However, he said, in four other cases, they were not able to prevent local immigrants from being deported.

Jacqui Clark, a representative of the Capital Area Interfaith Social Justice Coalition, said its members from seven different faith-based groups came together in early 2024 to focus on things they have in common, including food access, offering relief for unhoused neighbors, providing opportunities for civil exchange, and immigration, while recognizing our common human needs.

Its members come from Temple Beth El in Augusta, First Baptist Church of Gardiner, Saint Michael’s Catholic Parish, South Parish Congregational Church, Unitarian Universalist Church of Augusta, Christ Episcopal Church in Gardiner, and Vassalboro Friends Meeting/Quakers.

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