Portland council adopts amended immigration-enforcement code after heated debate; amendment passes 7–1

The Portland City Council voted 7–1 to adopt amendments to City Code Chapter 2 governing local interaction with federal immigration enforcement, following extended public comment and debate.

Supporters, including Lisa Percio, policy director at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, urged the council to pass the ordinance in its original form and warned against exceptions that would allow administrative ICE warrants or permit access where federal agents claim intimidation. "This ordinance is about ensuring that we are doing everything we can at a local level and that the city resources are not used deliberately or inadvertently to put people into ICE or border patrol's hands," Percio said.

Michael Cabetta, policy director for the ACLU of Maine, told the council that other Maine cities have adopted similar protections and urged members to back the Phillips-Ali version of the ordinance without the mayor's amendments. "Administrative warrants are generated by ICE with no judicial oversight," Cabetta said, and he argued an exception for intimidation could be read by federal officials as an invitation to harass city staff.

The measure before the council included two competing pieces of language: an amendment offered by Councilors Ali and Phillips and a mayor's amendment intended to provide an affirmative defense or disciplinary protection for city employees who, under duress, allowed access to nonpublic areas. Proponents of the Ali-Phillips amendment said it would clarify employee duties, align city policy with a pending state law (LD 1971), and preserve public trust in city services. Opponents warned that carving out exceptions for intimidation or administrative warrants risked creating a loophole that might be exploited by federal agents.

Mayor Mark Dion, who expressed legal and operational concerns about how the ordinance was brought forward, said his priority was protecting city employees while also considering community safety. "My first responsibility is to our employees," he said during debate, while noting the city had provided staff training on how to handle encounters with federal agents.

After debate, the council voted by hand on the Ali-Phillips amendment; the amendment passed 7–1. The council then took a roll-call vote on the main motion as amended; the clerk announced the main motion passed 7–1, with the mayor recorded as the sole no vote.

The ordinance text contains sections on data collection and limits to city cooperation with federal immigration enforcement; supporters said it would help protect residents from detention and family separation and preserve public-health and public-safety cooperation. Several public speakers and legal advocates asked the council to reject exceptions for administrative warrants and intimidation, arguing that such carve-outs would diminish the ordinance's protective effect.

Next procedural steps were not specified in the public record beyond the council's passage; the ordinance now stands adopted as amended by the council vote.