One week after the Trump administration launched expanded immigration operations in Maine, mayors from half a dozen cities say it's having a chilling effect on local businesses.
Gov. Janet Mills convened the mayors for a roundtable discussion in Portland on Wednesday to hear their concerns.
Biddeford mayor Liam LaFountain said Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in his city have stoked widespread fear.
"Business owners who are closing up shop on our main street, not opening," he said. "Some of them are able to take on that, that burden, and pay their staff throughout this time. Others can't."
South Portland mayor Elyse Tipton said a local Mexican-American family closed their restaurant after reports that ICE agents were spotted nearby.
"They made the decision to keep the restaurant closed," Tipton said. "They kept their children out of school, and that has harmed the kids, their employees, and their business."
Mayors from Portland, Westbrook, Lewiston and Auburn echoed those concerns.
Some raised additional fears that hundreds of immigrant families could soon be at risk of eviction, because breadwinners have either been detained or are too fearful to go to work.
Mills reiterated her demand that the Trump administration withdraw ICE agents from the state.
Attorney General Aaron Frey, who also took part in the discussion, said his office is urging the public to document any abuses by federal agents, and is weighing the possibility of legal action against the ICE deployment.
The Department of Homeland Security said Monday it has arrested more than 200 people in the state since the operation began last week.
