Maine Morning Star - Maine is seeing less Border Patrol and more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, along with increased cases of people being targeted and arrested at home, according to the only state-wide immigration legal services organization.
“We continue to see the majority of arrests are of Maine residents in lawful immigration processes with no criminal record,” said Lisa Parisio, policy director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project.
The rise in reported ICE activity has also shifted away from rural parts of the state — as seen in the aftermath of ICE’s large-scale operation in January — back to more populated areas, said Ruben Torres, advocacy and policy manager for the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition, which runs the hotline. A month ago, calls to the hotline documented one to two detentions per week. Over the last two weeks, that’s now the daily average.
Maine Morning Star - The signature gathering practices of the campaign behind the anti-transgender sports initiative are being cast into doubt, potentially derailing a referendum set to appear on the November ballot. Evidence submitted over several hours to the Secretary of State’s Office Tuesday suggested a pattern of negligence within the campaign behind the citizen’s initiative, with signature collectors admitting to leaving forms unattended, among other infractions. The outstanding question is how many signatures were collected improperly, after almost a dozen witnesses testified to seeing petition handling that violated Maine’s rules.
The Secretary of State’s Office previously conceded in court that more than 3,000 signatures could be questionable, so Tuesday’s hearing centered on the validity of just over 330 signatures. “The evidence today will show that once the secretary considers all the facts, the ballot initiative in fact, fell very far short of the required threshold to qualify,” Attorney Christopher Dodge from Elias Law said during the hearing at the Secretary of State’s Office in Augusta.
Maine Morning Star - A coalition of Maine environmental and community health organizations have published a five-year policy guide outlining how Maine can address environmental challenges and opportunities ahead of this year’s pivotal elections for governor and Maine Legislature.... The report, titled “Meeting the Moment,” outlines specific policy actions, centered around five focus areas: land, water, and wildlife for future generations; healthy and prosperous communities; sovereign Wabanaki Nations; clean and affordable energy; and a government that works for everyone.
In the latest poll we have in the Maine governor's race is about two months old and, Shah leads with 31%, followed by Jackson with 18%, Bellows with 17%, 16% with Pingree and 9% with King. Five good candidates. Platner leads in the Senate race against Collins by an average of the last three polls of 7%.