Faisal Khan, executive director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer

Advocates are warning that a second Trump presidency could pose threats to Maine’s immigrant population based on his promises of mass deportations and increased restrictions.

In Maine, which has been a destination for thousands of asylum seekers from central African countries in recent years, there are also concerns that President-elect Donald Trump could make the asylum process more difficult.

“It’s yet to be seen what will actually take place in terms of policies, but given his previous administration and how things evolved, I feel the worst is yet to come, though I hope I am wrong,” said Faisal Khan, executive director of the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center.

“There’s no doubt that among people I’ve spoken to here and in other parts of the country, there’s a tremendous amount of anxiety and stress,” he added.

Maine is home to about 56,419 foreign-born residents who make up just a small percentage – about 4% – of the state’s 1.3 million population, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

But federal immigration policy is still likely to have an impact here, and advocates are bracing for challenges and a rollback of immigrants’ rights even before Trump takes office.

The president-elect has not announced specific plans, but his early appointments signal that he’s serious about following through on at least some of his campaign rhetoric. In addition to stopping the flow of asylum seekers across the southern U.S. border, a central promise of the Trump campaign was to carry out mass deportations of millions of people per year.

His newly appointed “border czar,” Thomas Homan, played a key role in the first Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy that included family separations.

Trump also said that if elected he would issue an executive order instructing federal agencies to stop recognizing birthright citizenship, referring to the long-standing policy of granting citizenship to children born in the U.S. even if their parents are not citizens.

WILL DEPORTATIONS IMPACT MAINE?

There were about 5,000 immigrants living in the U.S. illegally in Maine as of 2022, according to data from the Pew Research Center, and about 11 million nationally, with California, Florida and Texas each home to more than 1 million.

Unauthorized immigrants are noncitizens who generally have entered the United States without inspection, overstayed a period of lawful admission, or violated the terms of their admission. The term means the same thing as “undocumented” but is the preferred language for researchers and policy analysts and is also used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to Pew.

The unauthorized population appears to be the most likely target of deportation efforts, but advocates say it’s too early to know what exactly that could look like.

“How extensive it’s going to be and how they will proceed – will they use other law enforcement agencies to drive their mission? – I don’t know,” Khan said. “But I do believe deportation is going to affect everyone across the country when it comes to people who don’t have documentation or are undocumented.”

Although Maine’s unauthorized immigrant population is small, Maine residents were affected by Trump’s deportation policies under his last administration.

Otto Morales-Caballeros at home in Brunswick. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Otto Morales-Caballeros, a Guatemalan man who fled violence in his home country as a teenager, was deported in 2017 after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him on his way to work from his home in Naples. He was separated from his wife, a U.S. citizen, for four years before she was able to work with an attorney to bring him back to Maine in 2021. The Biden administration revised guidelines for ICE deportations the same year, generally prioritizing national security and violent crime concerns over petty and nonviolent offenses.

Abdigani Faisal Hussein, a Portland resident who came to the U.S. lawfully as a Somali refugee, was nearly deported in 2018 because of his conviction in 2002 for possessing khat, a leafy stimulant grown in East Africa that’s illegal in the U.S. Hussein’s lawyer was able to intervene at the last minute and defer the deportation because of the grave political situation in Somalia.

The Trump transition team did not provide specifics about deportation plans and who in Maine could be impacted in response to questions from the Press Herald on Friday.

“The American people reelected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “He will deliver.”

Homan, Trump’s pick as border czar, told the Washington Post on Monday that he planned to focus deportation efforts on those who pose a threat to public safety and national security and people who recently crossed the border illegally. He said that anyone with an active removal order could be deported, even if they don’t have a criminal record.

“I’m not saying arrest a million people in a week, right?” Homan told the Post. “We’ve got to go for the worst first.”

The American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration advocacy group, estimates that it would cost at least $315 billion to conduct a one-time mass deportation program, which would also require mass incarceration prior to removal. Trump told NBC News after the election that “there is no price tag” too big for his plan to deport undocumented immigrants.

“They’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here,” Trump said.

Joel Stetkis, chair of the Maine Republican Party, said he thinks there will be support in Maine for Trump’s immigration policies but that it’s too early to assess impacts here until concrete plans are released.

“I think most Mainers are very excited about having substantially less fentanyl killing our neighbors, family and friends,” he said, adding, “Republicans have always been in favor of legal immigration.”

Maine Republican Party Chair Joel Stetkis. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Federal data analyzed by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization, indicates that most fentanyl enters the U.S. through legal ports of entry and is trafficked primarily by U.S. citizens. Experts have also said that stricter immigration policies will not effectively combat the opioid epidemic.

Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, Maine House minority leader, pointed out that Maine has spent millions of dollars in general assistance costs to house asylum seekers.

“Even though in Maine we’re very far from the southern border, we still feel the effects of it here,” he said. “I’m excited we’re going to have a president who is going to tighten up the border.”

With regard to deportations, Faulkingham said he expects to see greater enforcement of existing laws.

“What good are laws if you’re not going to follow them?” he said.

IT’S STILL EARLY 

Advocates in Maine’s immigrant community said that while there is generally a feeling of unease and anxiety about Trump’s election, it’s still too early to know what the impacts will be. But they are preparing to protect immigrants’ rights in the event of a crackdown or new restrictions.

“ILAP is deeply concerned about racist and anti-immigrant policies that would have a devastating impact on immigrant communities in Maine and beyond,” said Sue Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, which provides legal services to Maine immigrants. “But despite threats of mass deportation, we have a legal system and due process rights that must be enforced.”

Martha Stein, executive director of Hope Acts, which offers housing and assistance with basic needs to asylum seekers in Portland, said her staff is trying to be as prepared as possible but they don’t want to “fall down a rabbit hole of what about this or that.”

“There’s so much bad information and disinformation and nobody knows what the new administration is going to do until they do it,” Stein said. “It’s very unsettling.”

The Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center provides support and services including professional development and English classes, assistance with financial literacy and help getting integrated into Maine and the U.S.

Khan said he believes those services will become even more important under a Trump administration that puts immigrants at risk and where they will be more likely to come to the nonprofit center for services and a sense of belonging.

So far, Khan said he hasn’t heard many immigrants expressing concerns about the new administration, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

“A lot of people are going to be very afraid to speak out or share who they are or what their status is,” he said.

Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, has been hearing from people who are worried. In the initial aftermath of the election, Chitam said, some immigrants who lived through the first Trump administration were dismissive of the results, saying things like, “He said this last time but he didn’t do it.”

But as the days have gone by and more information about Trump’s plans have been shared, panic has set in. Some parents have reported their children coming home from school saying that they heard from friends they will be deported.

Chitam said her organization is telling people that for now they need to wait and see what actual policies are handed down. But in the meantime they are preparing to hold information sessions, helping people understand the rights they have and pointing them to resources like ILAP that they can rely on if they do find themselves at risk.

“The most we can do right now is just wait,” she said. “But in the meantime, we’re telling folks, ‘Know your rights.’ ”

THREATS TO ASYLUM?

While Maine’s overall immigrant population is relatively small, the state has experienced an influx of asylum seekers from central Africa, including Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the first six months of 2023, more than 1,500 asylum seekers arrived in Portland, pushing the city of 65,000 to the brink of its ability to house people at its shelters.

Asylum seekers are immigrants who come to the United States seeking protection from violence, persecution or human rights’ violations. Applying for asylum is a lengthy legal process that can take years, but Roche said that in general someone who is filing for asylum and going through the process can’t be deported.

“They have a right to complete that process and for the government to make a decision on their asylum application,” she said, noting that it is possible for asylum seekers to be deported if they don’t win their court case.

Stein said she is hopeful that the clients she works with will continue to be protected through the asylum process, but she worries there are ways those protections could be eroded.

“There’s a lot of talk about people who fly in on a visa and ask for asylum versus people who come over the border and apply for asylum,” she said. “Could they split things that way? And we’ve seen in the past that people from certain countries were deemed more or less desirable, which is reprehensible to me.”

Trump said this fall that he plans to reinstate travel bans that were in effect under his first administration barring some people from predominantly Muslim nations from coming to the U.S., and that he would expand them to include refugees from Gaza.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine has expressed broad concerns about a Trump presidency and how it would impact a variety of issues, saying in a news release last week that “we are clear-eyed about the dangers posed by a second Trump presidency and the challenges ahead.”

A spokesperson said this week that it’s too early to discuss specifics for Maine, but since immigration policy is federal, the impacts in Maine would likely mirror what is seen at the national level.

“Trump has made the demonization of people seeking asylum at the southern border a key element of his campaign this year,” the ACLU said in a memo on Trump’s immigration policy in June. “We expect his administration to renew and expand attempts to destroy our nation’s system of protection for people seeking safety from violence and persecution.”

The memo said impacts to asylum could come through executive orders or legislation, which would likely be facilitated with Republicans now controlling both the U.S. House and Senate. Trump is reportedly planning to kick off his second term with a major bill on border security and immigration that could limit or effectively end access to asylum, according to the memo.

But attempting to shut down asylum would also pose significant legal challenges and conflict with existing policies, the ACLU said.

“The ACLU and its partners challenged numerous Trump anti-asylum policies, pressing these legal claims and more,” the memo said. “Courts held many of the policies illegal, and some were suspended or never went into effect.”

MILLS MONITORING TRUMP PLANS

Gov. Janet Mills is taking a cautious approach to Trump’s plan to conduct mass deportations of immigrants – a process advisers say would require assistance from state and local law enforcement.

While some Democratic governors, such as Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, have said they will not use state police to assist the Trump administration, a Mills spokesperson said the governor is monitoring Trump’s plans and will evaluate any requests for help from the incoming administration.

“At this time, the State of Maine has not received a communication from the incoming administration,” spokesman Scott Ogden said in an email. “If the Trump Administration advances a specific plan or directive involving State of Maine assets or resources, the Governor will review it, assess its impacts on Maine people, and make a decision that she believes is in the best interest of the state and our people.

As attorney general, Mills pushed back against Trump’s anti-immigration policies, including the travel ban on people entering the United States from Muslim-majority countries.

Mills was one of 20 attorneys general to sue Trump over plans to roll back the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provided protections against children – known as “dreamers” – who were brought into the country illegally by their parents.

And as governor, Mills objected to Trump’s efforts to make it harder for people who are seeking asylum to obtain work permits – a move at odds with national business groups and immigration advocates who have pushed for changes to federal laws to make it easier for asylum seekers to work.

Advocates say it would help businesses address workforce shortages and reduce the burden on communities providing financial support to asylum seekers who are not allowed to support themselves.

Mills’ current approach is more cautious than that of some of her colleagues.

Healey told MSNBC recently that she would use “every tool in the toolbox” to block attempts to deport unauthorized immigrants in the commonwealth. She said she would “absolutely not” allow Massachusetts State Police to assist federal deportation efforts.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, two Democrats who are eyeing 2028 presidential runs, have signaled they are prepared to push back against a variety of Trump policies, and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said “if it’s contrary to our values, we will fight to the death,” according to The Hill.

Staff Writer Randy Billings contributed to this story

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