On January 21 ICE agents arrested a Cumberland County, ME corrections officer recruit. Cumberland County includes Portland. The arrest took place at Portland’s East Bayside neighborhood. ICE has just announced “Operation Catch of the Day” for Maine. Governor Janet Mills has referred to “secret arrests.”

The arrest was recorded. Sheriff Kevin Joyce made the following statement:

“We’ve all seen the three minute video. And I’ve heard some people say oh, it’s, it’s hard to watch. What was hard is that there were five to seven ICE agents there. In my world, my colleagues, we’ve arrested some dangerous people on the back roads of Cumberland County with three or less deputies. This was a show of force, a show of whatever they were trying to do with seven people. What’s even more disturbing is the comment made by the witness to videotaped this encounter who said that in the three minutes they got out, they pulled the guy from the car, handcuffed him, put him in the car, they all took off, leaving his car with the windows down, the lights on, unsecure, not occupied. They left it right on the side of the street. Folks, that’s bush league policing. Again, in my world, you’ll wait for a wrecker, You wait for somebody to come pick it up that the individual wants, or you get permission to drive the vehicle into a public parking spot and you lock it up. You give the person their car keys. You don’t leave their personal belongings unsecure along the streets. With the city of Portland, it’s fair to the guy that owns the car. It’s surely not fair to the Portland police and it’s what my understanding is going on. I’ll end with this. We’re being told one story which is totally different than what’s occurring or what occurred last night.”