AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Janet Mills issued a dire warning in her annual address to state lawmakers Tuesday night: The federal immigration raids sweeping the state are part of an ongoing attack on democracy nationwide.
The speech from Mills, who is a leading Democratic challenger to Republican Senator Susan Collins, marks perhaps the most prominent example of how the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration raids have upended communities — and potentially electoral politics — around the country. The crackdown has become a political crisis for the White House in recent days following two fatal shootings by federal officers in Minnesota.
“Tonight, I say to the people of Maine: We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced,” Mills said. “And to anyone outside these halls, including any federal officials, I say: if you seek to harm Maine people, you will have to go through me first.”
The Democratic governor’s defiant State of the State address on Tuesday came as a sweeping ICE operation in Maine has led to hundreds of arrests and prompted widespread protests throughout the state since it began last week. The killing of a protester in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers this weekend has amplified those pressures — and the political stakes.
