Hundreds of public commenters urge Cumberland County to end ICE contract; commissioners schedule data review, approve several county contracts

Hundreds of residents packed the Cumberland County Commission chambers to urge commissioners to terminate the county’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to stop accepting ICE detainees at the county jail. Public comment lasted more than two hours; speakers included residents, teachers and legal advocates who described fear in immigrant communities and urged immediate action. Commissioners said they will schedule a policy workshop and gather more data before acting. The commission took several formal votes on unrelated county business, approving labor and vendor contracts for jail operations.

Speakers said the county can end the contract quickly and that cooperation with ICE is harming community trust. “Please end the contract with ICE and do not provide,” said Deborah McNally, describing the harm she said detention causes to immigrant neighbors. Nancy Markowitz, who said she has followed recent local detentions, offered a different view on where detainees should be held: “I don’t believe that ending the contract with the Cumberland County Jail would have any impact on any of that,” she said, arguing that keeping people locally can improve access to attorneys and family.

Legal and procedural questions were raised by Margot Lavoy, a University of Maine School of Law student: “Nothing under federal law requires Cumberland County to hold ICE detainees at the jail,” she told the commission, and she pointed to contract language she said could be changed by “unchecking this box” in the county’s contract forms. Several speakers repeated that claim and urged commissioners to bring the question to a vote in August. Todd Kretion asked the commission to move faster than the…