Immigration

C.J. Ciaramella | 2.12.2026 12:21 PM

In the aftermath of a surge of federal immigration officers to Maine by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), civil rights groups and local media say the federal government mostly swept up people without criminal records, such as asylum seekers, not the "worst of the worst" that the DHS said it was targeting.

On January 21, the DHS announced "Operation Catch of the Day," an immigration enforcement surge across Maine "targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities." But like in other parts of the country that the DHS has flooded with Border Patrol and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, records show relatively few undocumented immigrants with criminal records being arrested. Instead, ICE swept up people who already had or were seeking legal status in the country through the federal immigration system.

For example, the Bangor Daily News on Monday identified 67 people detained by federal agents during "Operation Catch of the Day" using court records, press releases, and local news reports. Of those, 58 had no identifiable criminal record. Two-thirds were already in contact with the federal immigration system. That group includes asylum seekers, those granted temporary legal status or work authorizations, and those doing routine check-ins at ICE field offices, such as Yanick Joao Carneiro, an Angolan asylum-seeker who had a scheduled immigration court hearing in 2027.

The Trump administration's mass deportation program has produced similar results nationwide. CBS News reported Monday that, according to an internal DHS document, less than 14 percent of the nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE during the........

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