A fundraising campaign for the legal defense of Sonia Pedro had raised $27,203 by Wednesday.
By Lee Burnett
A network of residents is rallying to support immigrants whose lives have been turned upside down by the surge of immigration enforcement that started last week.
Many immigrant families stayed home since last week, fearful of being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. In response, residents are providing rides, grocery deliveries, and other assistance. Bail money is being raised for one Sanford detainee. This network is being coordinated by Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and extends throughout southern Maine. Sanford’s population of immigrants, mostly asylum seekers from Angola, is estimated to be 150 families.
At least two Sanford residents were arrested by ICE last week, during a surge in enforcement that the Department of Homeland Security has dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day.” One was a corrections officer at the York County Jail who was detained after he showed up for a scheduled immigration appointment at the ICE facility in Scarborough. York County officials question his detainment, noting he had been cleared for hiring after undergoing reference and criminal background checks, employment verification, federal I-9 verifications, and other governmental database searches.
“To the best of our knowledge this individual has never committed any type of crime that would result in the revocation of his legal status. It remains unknown if and/or when his legal status changed. From York County’s perspective, it never received any notification on whether there had been a change in his status. This individual was a contributing and valued member of the staff,” according to a statement from Sheriff Bill King and County Administrator Greg Zinser.
The other individual arrested has inspired a successful fundraising campaign to pay for her legal defense. Sonia Pedro was driving to work as a dishwasher in Wells when she was stopped on Route 4 in south Sanford on Jan. 22. She was transferred to multiple ICE facilities and is now in Louisiana. A GoFundMe campaign was launched and met its goal of $25,000 in a little more than two days, according to organizer Shaun Donnelly.
“We are absolutely humbled and blown away by this community’s generosity,” he wrote on the GoFundMe page.
Absenteeism among adults learning English through Sanford Community Adult Education is running “at least 75 percent,” according to Director Jayne Perkins. One teacher initiated the idea of offering a remote hybrid class and Perkins readily agreed. “I was thinking of it, but I hate to ask our teachers to do more because they do so much already, but it was weighing on me,” she said. Once the teacher suggested it, the details were quickly worked out and now she is hoping other teachers will offer it. Tuesday was the first day the remote hybrid option was offered and “turnout was good,” she said. School Superintendent Matt Nelson said overall attendance among immigrant children in the schools has actually improved since last week.
ICE has gone quiet in Sanford since last week, according to Marsha Garnecky, a representative of Mainers for Humane Immigration. She received verifier training through MIRC and as part of her work, she tracks ICE activity in Sanford.
DHS says it is targeting 1,400 people in Maine it has described as “the worst of the worst” because of their criminal records. But many politicians, clergy, editorialists and activists say the surge is a heavy-handed attempt to punish and intimidate Maine for opposing Trump policies.
As of Wednesday, some 200 people had been arrested by ICE, although only 13 detainees had their names, mug shots and alleged crimes published on the department’s “Worst of Worst” page. Gov. Janet Mills has described ICE “police state” tactics. In her State of the State speech Tuesday, she accused federal officials of arresting people “not on public safety grounds but based on quotas, on skin color, on accents, and religion and ethnic origin.”
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