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Here’s what the Portland mayor said about ICE’s ‘Operation Catch of the Day’ in Maine
“If we're going to talk about this issue, let's talk about facts,” Mayor Mark Dion said. "If ICE has an issue with criminal aliens, let them actually be criminals."
Portland Mayor Mark Dion urged residents to be “the best possible witness” to federal immigration agents during ICE’s “Operation Catch of the Day” while also casting doubt on the agency’s characterization of Maine.
“If we’re going to talk about this issue, let’s talk about facts,” Dion, previously described as Portland’s “law-and-order candidate” said. “If we’re going to provide guidance, let us be calm. Let us be leaders. If ICE has an issue with criminal aliens, let them actually be criminals.”
During a Wednesday press conference, Dion and other city leaders addressed ICE’s statewide immigration action to target “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities,” the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday. The operation launched Tuesday.
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After Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this month, Dion warned against obstructing agents, saying it could “lead to outcomes neither party wished upon each other when they began the transaction.” He said instead, facts gathered by residents as witnesses could be “useful to any future investigation or judicial inquiry.”
“While we respect the law, we challenge the need for a paramilitary approach for the enforcement of federal statutes,” Dion, a former Portland police officer and sheriff, said. “What we’ve been concerned with as a council is the enforcement tactics that ICE has undertaken in other communities, which, to our mind, appear to threaten and intimidate populations.”
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Ryan Scallon, the superintendent of Portland Public Schools, said attendance is down in some schools by more than 5 percentage points, while other schools are seeing a drop closer to 15 to 20 percent.
“Kids are not coming to school and their families are holding in their houses,” said Sarah Lentz, the chair of the PPS’s Board of Education. “We’re going to hold the line and do whatever we can as educators and community members to make sure that our schools are safe and predictable spaces for everyone that are there.”
‘Top picks to show you the state of crime and justice in Maine. An OUI?’
DHS detailed four arrests, including three people already convicted and one “previously arrested.” Dominic Ali, from Sudan, was convicted for false imprisonment, aggravated assault, assault, obstructing justice, and violation of a protective order, according to ICE.
“I think that’s meant to frighten you. I think that’s meant to infer that this criminal person was free in our community, but you missed the word convicted. He’s been convicted. He’s been through the process,” Dion said about Ali.
Ambessa Berhe, from Ethiopia, was convicted of aggravated assault and cocaine possession, and Dany Lopez-Cortez, from Guatemala, was convicted operating under the influence of alcohol. Elmara Correira, from Angola, was previously arrested for endangering the welfare of a child, all according to DHS’s announcement of “Operation Catch of the Day.”
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“Was she found not guilty, or are we just going to be satisfied that she was arrested?” Dion said about Correira. “Those were her (four) top picks to show you the state of crime and justice in Maine. An OUI?”
ICE has also been reported in Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city, where Mayor Carl Sheline was seen in the community, WMTW reported. Statewide, ICE has claimed nearly 50 arrests, Dion said, who said videos can confirm six.
“The other concern we had about ICE arriving, and I put it this way, as a former member of law enforcement, what Mayor Sheline and I expect is that federal agencies and their agents will conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect the rule of law and treat our citizens without the use of provocation exercise the restraint that’s necessary,” Dion said. “These are standards that are not alien to anyone who carries a badge.”
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