After a federal immigration enforcement surge began in late January, the Maine attorney general’s office set up an email tipline to collect information about potential civil rights violations and improper use of force amid reports that federal agents had smashed the car windows of people they detained and left them running in the street, followed observers home, and labeled one observer a “domestic terrorist.”

The Maine Monitor asked for the tips as part of a public records request to understand the types of concerns people were raising about agents’ treatment of immigrants or observers during the two-week operation in which agents detained about 200 people, only 11 of whom were recorded as having a criminal record. 

The tipline received about two dozen submissions related to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity that the attorney general’s office deemed too sensitive to release to The Monitor, according to Danna Hayes, a spokesperson for the office. She said she could not provide more details about these complaints under state laws that protect the identities of informants and that keep information confidential ahead of legal proceedings.

The tipline remains open for the foreseeable future.

“e do continue to get credible, relevant concerns intermittently and want concerned individuals to have an easy way to report to us. We are also in contact with organizations collecting similar information since we know some might not feel most comfortable sharing sensitive information with law enforcement agencies,” Hayes wrote to The Monitor.

The rest of the 98 submissions to the tipline between Jan. 26 and Feb. 26, which the state released, largely had nothing to do with potential ICE abuses. People wrote in to report on those they suspected to be immigrants. They wrote in to say ICE agents were doing a good job. One person sent a picture of feces, another an ice-fishing meme.

Two Maine people have since joined a federal class action lawsuit claiming the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its subagencies retaliated against them for lawfully observing and recording federal immigration enforcement operations. A Maine man also filed a notice of claim against the same federal agency, requesting $7.5 million in damages after he said ICE agents threatened to pull him out of his car and arrest him if he continued to drive behind and watch enforcement vehicles.

The attorney general’s office announced the email tipline in an apparent attempt to tee up its own legal response to the action. But the tips that are currently public show what can happen when an email address is widely publicized. (Before providing copies of the tips to The Monitor, the attorney general’s office redacted the names and email addresses of private citizens.)

“My Ice wasn’t cold enough at the Irving in Freeport,” wrote one person. 

“I witnessed federal law enforcement actually enforcing the law. What the hell is going on here,” wrote another.

“Ice is causing problems at my house it is hanging from the eves and it may damage my shingles,” wrote a third.

Others applauded ICE. “The good men and women in ICE are to be welcomed here in Maine. If I see them here in Sedgwick, I will offer them a cup of hot coffee and cup cake,” someone wrote.

Fifteen emails came from people making unrelated complaints. One person tried to submit a complaint about Meta for disabling the person’s Instagram account for violating its standards.

Only a handful of the complaints made public raised concerns about immigration agents, though they mainly asked for legal advice or forwarded information reported in news outlets.

About 39 of the emails were listserv notifications where someone signed up the tipline email to receive updates and notices from various government agencies, including from the city of Bath and the state of New Hampshire. Hayes said someone at the office had to unsubscribe from each one. 

“Unfortunately I have heard anecdotally that the spamming is consistent with other tip lines/reporting portals,” Hayes told The Monitor. 

The Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition also receives calls from people expressing racist comments or “general meanness” to its hotline, which launched in the fall and receives between 80 and 200 calls per day, Senior Program and Community Engagement Manager Hunter Cropsey said. Some callers misunderstand the hotline’s purpose — to connect people with resources and track potential immigration enforcement sightings — and instead call to report their neighbors to immigration officials.

Bad faith callers account for less than 10 percent of all calls, Cropsey said, and volunteer operators curtail disruptions to the hotline by not picking up anonymous calls. They document and block bad faith callers who do not anonymize their numbers.

“There are many, many more Mainers out there who are trying to help their neighbors and help their community stay fed and safe,” Cropsey said. “That is really the thing I choose to look at.”

Staff reporter Rose Lundy contributed reporting.

Officials in western Maine town of Eustis are seeking ways to expand the local housing supply, and they’re the first to join a new initiative by a major state nonprofit.

The town is the first to host officials from GrowSmart Maine to discuss its new “Housing Forward Communities” initiative, which is based in Franklin County and aimed at building community consensus in favor of new housing projects.

The nationwide housing shortage has spiked property values and taxes across the state. As the tourist economy drives new growth in northwestern Maine, Eustis, where most properties sit empty for much of the year, has little housing available.

“If somebody wanted to move to town, they’re not going to find a place,” Town Clerk Rachel Williams said. “And they’re really not going to find … an affordable place.”

The donor-funded program aims to host community conversations around housing, create a local “housing action committee” and help the town draft resolutions guiding future planning decisions.

Rent in Eustis has more than doubled in just a few years, according to data in the state’s housing portal compiled from Zillow and the U.S. Census Bureau. The median rent in the town, which lies near the ski resort at Sugarloaf but an hour’s drive from the nearest major service center in Farmington, was $916 in 2024. It was about $450 in 2019.

Vacancy rates are also dropping, according to census data. In 2014, more than a quarter of rentals were available. In 2024, that number was 5.3%. It’s similarly hard to find a permanent home in the town, with 4.5% of owned homes vacant and for sale in 2014 compared with none in 2024.

The town’s thirst for more housing has come up repeatedly at local meetings as the limited tax base has strained budgets. In minutes from a February town meeting in which officials discussed a proposed school budget increase, the exchange is summarized by saying educators “have cut where they can.”

“We need more housing,” the minutes read.

Williams said that it’s difficult to find workers in Eustis. Stratton Lumber, the local sawmill, has had to hire workers from far away as a result. A manager there directed questions from a reporter to the mill’s owner, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

Voters in nearby Kingfield killed a housing project in 2024 that was planned for a 7-acre plot behind Dollar General, putting it among the towns that have resisted attempts to build more housing. GrowSmart Maine’s new program for Franklin County aims to preempt similar cases.

“There is often local resistance to new proposals,” GrowSmart Maine’s Associate Director Harald Bredesen said. “The purpose of this program is to kind of have discussion first … so that the community doesn’t have to say yes no to a particular proposal, but rather, can kind of help shape the kinds of proposals and attract, maybe, the kinds of developers that they want.”

MACHIAS — A Machias eighth-grader turned his passion for academic competitions into a trip to Washington, D.C. to represent Maine in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. 

Tristan Singh, who turns 14 in May, bested 13 other young spellers at the Maine State Spelling Bee at Bowdoin College last weekend. He’ll be one of about 250 young spellers competing for a first-place $50,000 prize at the national event, which is being held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

“I tied for fourth in the state spelling bee last year. So, of course I was eager to win this year,” said Singh. “And then I made a bet with myself that there’s a neon dance coming up, and I said that I would only go if I won.” And, if he lost, he would go beforehand to help set up the dance.

Singh won the state bee by correctly spelling “stratosphere.”

The teen can’t say how many hours he’s put in preparing for this competition. “If I kept track, that would take away time from well, in this case, studying, right?” he said.

There are books and apps that he uses, but his biggest piece of advice for other kids? “Just make sure you really want to do this. Have rocket fuel motivation. Be dedicated,” he said. 

That focus moved him from being one of 10 million students competing in bees in classrooms and auditoriums in schools across the country to heading for a national stage. 

His mother, Elizabeth Singh, who teaches fourth grade at Rose M. Gaffney Elementary School, is quick to point out that Tristan does more than study. 

“He’s the senior patrol leader in Boy Scouts. He runs cross country and likes to help keep stats for basketball and baseball,” she said. “He’s more well-rounded than he is letting on.”

The teen is also a finalist this year for the National Civics Bee, a competition sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation that encourages middle schoolers to think about solutions for community issues. His essay, “Website Wonder,” landed him the opportunity to compete in the Maine State Civics Bee in June, where he’ll answer quizzes and pitch community solutions. 

“When COVID hit, a lot of the academic stuff stopped and getting it back has been tricky,” said Elizabeth Singh. “That’s something he’s really been passionate about and thinking about — how can we get other schools to participate in this?” 

There are fees involved. Beginning in August, teachers and administrators can enroll their schools in bees for $199. Tristan worries the cost could prevent kids in small rural schools from getting to participate. If he should win a cash prize at Nationals, he’d like to use some of it to help other schools enroll.

In Washington County, only Rose M. Gaffney and Princeton elementary schools participate in the Scripps Spelling Bee. 

Newsrooms sponsor the Scripps Spelling Bees across the country and over 10 million children participate in school bees. In Maine, the bee was presented by the Maine Trust for Local News.

“We’re really proud to host the Maine State Bee. We think about it the same way we think about high school sports,” said Stefanie Manning, president and publisher at the Maine Trust. “The academic kids, the readers — they deserve their moments too.”

The Maine Trust also coordinates Maine’s school-level and county bees for Scripps. This year 73 schools registered from 14 counties, according to Manning. Each school was invited to send up to two spellers to the county bee and then each county could send one speller to the state bee.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee started in 1925 and the last Mainer to win nationally was Portlander Sarah Wilson in 1934.

Visit spellingbee.com starting May 1, 2026 to see the broadcast schedule and to follow Singh through the competition.

HARRINGTON — Voters enacted a Solar Energy Ordinance on Monday allowing personal and commercial solar installations for on‑site use within town limits, with Planning Board approval, while prohibiting utility‑scale solar farms and any for‑profit power generation.

The vote, held during the annual town meeting at Narraguagus High School, drew overwhelming support, with no one in the 35‑person audience raising an objection.

According to the ordinance, its intent is to preserve Harrington’s rural character and “prevent industrial encroachment incompatible with community values.”

The ordinance authorizes personal ground‑mounted systems and personal and commercial roof‑mounted solar installations, but it does not authorize power to be distributed to the grid for profit.

The commercial provision applies only to Harrington businesses that install systems to power their own operations.

“Net metering is permitted for energy offset, but no profit may be derived” from the system, according to the ordinance.

Ground‑mounted systems may not be taller than 25 feet, with minimum setbacks of 25 feet from all property lines. Setbacks increase to 45 feet from town roads and 70 feet from state roads, according to the ordinance.

The systems may not exceed 2,500 square feet of total project airspace.

Owners of ground‑mounted systems must keep them maintained, including clearing vegetation, and must “reasonably” screen them from public roads and neighboring properties with landscaping, fencing or other features.

Roof‑mounted systems are exempt from screening requirements.

Owners must remove any system that remains nonoperational for more than a year and restore the site to its reasonably original condition.

All personal and commercial installations are subject to Planning Board approval.

Officials in Palmyra are negotiating with Corinna over a fire and emergency services contract after ditching a decades-old deal with Newport.

Maine’s small towns commonly share fire and emergency coverage through contracts with neighboring communities. For more than 20 years, that meant Newport’s Fire Department covered calls in Palmyra. Late last year, Newport more than doubled its asking price, something Newport Fire Chief Jeff Chretien said had not ever been raised.

“The Select Board just let it go for 20 years without addressing it and it was time to readdress it,” he said.

The strife over fire protection costs in the Newport area comes as small towns across the state are reeling from years of high costs, causing discontent and difficult budget talks in both local service hubs that have been hit hardest by cost increases and the communities around them.

Newport is in the first category. Homeowners there pay more than 3% of income in taxes, double the amount of Palmyra residents, according to data provided to the Legislature. Part of this is because Newport was subsidizing the smaller town’s fire service, Chretien argued.

When the contract was initially finalized, Newport’s charge was set at 20% of the fire department’s operating costs. Last year as the town reassessed, it found that Palmyra still accounted for about 20% of the department’s calls. So they asked for 20% of the department’s operating budget.

After decades of inflation, that meant a jump from about $39,000 to $88,000 per year. Chretien said that to give Palmyra time to adjust to the increased cost, that price would increase gradually over three years. Chretien called the offer “very, very fair.”

But it didn’t land well in Palmyra, which allowed the contract to expire at the end of December. The town was not going to have any money available to absorb the increase unless voters allowed them to at the town meeting next week.

Palmyra is now negotiating with Corinna, which is covering the town while negotiations continue. Michael Cray, the Palmyra Select Board’s vice chair, has asked Corinna to accept a price of $40,000 based on the 54 calls covered by Newport last year.

Chretien said that while his department covered 54 calls classified as a fire response, they responded to 191 calls in total in 2025. He also added that Newport is continuing to cover Palmyra in emergencies and has responded to 34 calls there since the contract expired.

Cray said the deal is likely to be approved, which may make the upcoming town meeting easier.

“For the fire protection part of it, there won’t be a substantial increase in taxes,” he said.

Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness for the first time has trained about 30 doulas to help families leading up to and during birth as other birthing services across the state have ceased.

Lisa Sockabasin, co-CEO of the health organization based in Bangor, said she heard from concerned community members about the crisis of closing birthing centers across Maine, so Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness decided to help fill in the gaps.

Most of the participants in the late-September training were Indigenous, though some were not, she said. A tribal chief participated, as well as other community members. The trainers were Indigenous doulas from Canada.

Sockabasin said it is important to have Indigenous doulas in particular because they can incorporate cultural aspects into their work.

“It’s about that time being honored, being sacred. It’s a very spiritual time,” she said. “That birth is a ceremony.”

Doulas are nonmedical care workers who provide educational, physical and emotional support to pregnant, birthing and postpartum people and their families. A 2023 survey of 45 doulas, conducted by the Maine Doula Coalition, found they were overwhelmingly female and white, and highly concentrated in southern Maine. 

Sockabasin said doulas with her organization will also be able to connect families with other services for challenges related to substance use disorder, poverty and mental health. 

Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness serves the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township, the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point and the Penobscot Nation.

“When you wrap love and support around an individual, they thrive,” Sockabasin said. “If they have a baby inside them, that baby is going to thrive, too.”

Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness had hoped to start up a doula program soon, but the current federal funding landscape has made that more difficult, Sockabasin said. It is now likely the organization will have to wait for additional funding or until doulas can be reimbursable by MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid.

Sockabasin said conversations with the state around reimbursement are ongoing, but any change likely wouldn’t take effect until 2027.

Sockabasin said her broader goal would be to have an Indigenous birthing center in Maine. Minnesota recently opened one, with support from the state’s Legislature. She’d like to see the same thing happen here.

Eleven birthing units in Maine have closed in the last decade, four of which closed in the last year. The closures leave 17 hospitals with delivery wards remaining across the state.

The training was funded by part of a $385,000 grant Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness received from the state, Sockabasin said.

Around 10 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 22, Westbrook pastor Carlos Nzolameso received a call from a member of his congregation who was searching for a roommate. Evaristo Kalonji, who organizes and plays the music at the church, had not shown up to his job at Chipotle.

Several other congregants also reached out to Nzolameso, concerned that Kalonji, an asylum seeker from Angola, was missing. Nzolameso, who leads the predominantly Portuguese-speaking Rehoboth Christian Church, said Kalonji, who has no family in the United States, is like a son. 

He set out to find him.

Nzolameso spent a couple hours searching for Kalonji in and around South Portland, where Kalonji lives. Nzolameso checked with the police department for any traffic stops or accidents. His efforts yielded no answers. He weighed checking the hospital next. 

It wasn’t until the pastor made a final trip to retrace Kalonji’s commute that he spotted his car — a black Ford Fusion — two minutes away from Kalonji’s home. It was parked on Westbrook Street in South Portland. The car was unlocked, he said, and the keys were on the floor.

“I was devastated. I couldn’t even believe it,” said Noemia Nzolameso, the pastor’s daughter, when she heard the news. “I was in shock. Literally.”

Though Kalonji has no criminal record, the pastor suspected he could have been detained by federal agents as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began a widespread immigration enforcement operation in Maine last week. 

But Nzolameso had no way of confirming what had happened until later that day, when he received a brief call from Kalonji, who said he had been detained by immigration agents. He was calling from a detention center in Burlington, Massachusetts, and seemed confused as to why he was there, Nzolameso said.

Kalonji has a pending asylum case, according to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, part of the U.S. Department of Justice. Kalonji originally had a court date scheduled for this year, but it was recently postponed to May 2028, Nzolameso said. 

Nzolamesco later learned that Kalonji was then moved to a detention center in Central Falls, Rhode Island, according to an online federal database.

On Saturday, a lawyer for Kalonji filed an emergency petition in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts for a writ of habeas corpus, challenging the detention, according to online court records. The detainee locator system showed Kalonji was still in Rhode Island as of Jan. 28.

A background search in TLOxp, a database from TransUnion, returned no criminal records for Kalonji. 

The Maine Monitor asked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Monday why it had detained Kalonji. The agency had not provided an answer as of Wednesday morning.

Officials from homeland security told Fox News last week, when the operation started, that it was targeting approximately 1,400 people in Maine. So far, the agency claims to have detained more than 200 people in Maine. It has only released limited names but said in a press release that it is going after “the worst of the worst.”

The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, however, said that most people who have been detained and sought its help are going through lawful immigration processes and have no criminal background.

A recent report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found that nearly three in four people detained by ICE in October and early November last year had never been convicted of a crime.

Last week, Maine Monitor reporting found that a mother of four with no criminal history was detained after dropping off a child at school, and a civil engineer with no criminal history was detained by masked agents who smashed his window and left his car running in the street.

Nzolameso, who has been leading the church for five years, has found himself navigating a challenging immigration detention system on behalf of some of his congregants. Kalonji is the fourth congregant of his church to have been detained by immigration officials in the past six months, Nzolameso said. Three other men were detained between August and December, he said, and only one has been released. 

“I’m the pastor. I need to take care them,” he said. “I preach the word of God for them. But I need to care for them, too, because they have no family.”

While sitting at a desk in the basement of his Westbrook home, Nzolameso’s phone rang repeatedly as church members tried to reach him. On the night before Kalonji was detained, Nzolameso had told his congregants to reach out if they had any concerns as the immigration operation took on a new force in Maine.

Many church members have stopped showing up to services, he said, which has led him to start preaching online. Others are not going to work.

“Everybody is afraid,” Nzolameso said. “They don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Please send tips about ICE activity in Maine through this form or contact individual reporters directly.

Masked agents in police vests detained Juan Sebastian Carvajal-Munoz, a civil engineer from Colombia employed by an engineering consulting company, in Portland on Thursday morning. Carvajal-Munoz earned a master’s degree from the University of Maine, and colleagues said he was in the country on a work visa.

An unmarked dark Subaru with tinted windows cut off Carvajal-Munoz as he was driving his grey Hyundai Tucson on Pearl Street in downtown Portland at 8:46 a.m., according to Jesse Smith, who witnessed the encounter.

Agents got out and quickly began using a crowbar to try and pry open his window, Smith said. They then smashed it to pieces. Three agents pulled Carvajal-Munoz out of his car, placed him in their Subaru and drove off, he said.

Smith couldn’t hear what, if anything, the agents said to Carvajal-Munoz but said the whole encounter was very quick.

“In less than two minutes, they smashed his window and dragged him out of the car,” Smith said. “He was compliant. He wasn’t resisting or anything.”

Agents left the car running — with its smashed window — on the street, according to interviews with Smith and a nearby parking attendant. A passerby then drove the vehicle into the parking lot, the attendant said. Smith said Carvajal-Munoz’s bag and keys were left in the passenger seat, and his phone was discarded on the road behind the car. 

In a video shared by Smith, a bystander can be heard saying agents “smashed their window in, by force, after the person had their hands up.”

The detention happened as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is conducting what it is calling “Operation Catch of the Day,” an immigration enforcement effort across Maine, “targeting the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have terrorized communities,” according to an ICE press release.

But Carvajal-Munoz has no criminal record, according to TLOxp, a background check system from TransUnion.

He is at least the third person detained in Maine whom news outlets have found does not have a criminal record. ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment and has not publicized a complete list of people it has detained. The agency said on Tuesday it had arrested 50 people in Maine, but the “Worst of the Worst” list it published contained only 13 names as of 12 p.m. on Thursday. 

“In America, we don’t believe in secret arrests or secret police,” said Gov. Janet Mills during a Thursday press conference on ICE enforcement in Maine.

Agents pulled Carvajal-Munoz over by the Top of the Old Port parking lot between Cumberland and Congress streets, according to Greg Seligman, the parking lot attendant working at the time. Seligman said he didn’t see the interaction but saw the aftermath: Agents had smashed a car window and left the car running, he said.

Seligman said someone who witnessed the incident asked him if they could move the car into the parking lot. The car was still there around 10 a.m., and there was still glass on the road from where Carvajal-Munoz had been pulled over.

Seligman said Portland police responded to 911 calls after the detention but told him there was nothing local police could do as it was a federal operation. The Portland Police Department confirmed it received a report of a disturbance at 8:48 a.m. and that officers responded to check out the area.

Amanda Barnett, Carvajal-Munoz’s coworker at GEI Consultants in Portland, said Carvajal-Munoz is in Maine legally on a work visa. He has worked at the company for two-and-a-half years, according to another colleague, Ali Brady, who said they started on the same day in June 2023.

“I’m really scared for him,” Barnett said.

GEI Consultants is an engineering and environmental consulting firm with 62 locations across the U.S. and Canada, according to its website. Reached by phone, a company representative confirmed Carvajal-Munoz worked there but declined to comment on the detention while the company was gathering information. 

An observer posted a video online of agents in police vests leading Carvajal-Munoz with his hands behind his back to a dark-colored car with flashing lights above the windshield. A second video showed the agents’ car driving away, leaving the car Carvajal-Munoz had been driving in the street.

Barnett said she heard from Carvajal-Munoz’s girlfriend that she received an emergency alert from Carvajal-Munoz’s phone. The girlfriend asked Barnett if he had made it to work. When Barnett and Brady learned he hadn’t, and saw the videos of him online, they both went to Pearl Street.

Carvajal-Munoz received a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Maine in Orono in May 2023, the school confirmed Thursday.

Aaron Gallant, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at UMaine, said Carvajal-Munoz was one of the hardest-working students he has had.

“I know that the entire department and faculty look very highly on Juan Sebastian,” Gallant told The Maine Monitor. “I’m shocked to hear this. I know his employers have been extremely happy with his performance as they’ve communicated to me regularly.” 

Carvajal-Munoz has three years of experience in geotechnical engineering, geotechnical instrumentation, and construction observation, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

“I have overseen and conducted geotechnical investigations for communities, cities, and agencies using a wide range of drilling, sampling, and in-situ testing methods,” he wrote on the platform. “My technical expertise includes shallow and deep foundation analysis, soil and rock slope stability analysis, and instrumented pile load testing.”

Deputy Editor Erin Rhoda contributed reporting.

Update (Jan. 22, 5 p.m.): This story was updated to include information provided by Jesse Smith.

Agents wearing police tactical vests detained Micheline Ntumba, a Portland resident, before 8:30 a.m. Wednesday after Ntumba dropped off one of her four children at Portland High School, according to her 20-year-old daughter.

Plamedi Sifa, the daughter, said agents she believed to be from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement followed Ntumba from the high school back to the parking lot of their apartment near Deering Oaks Park in Portland. Ntumba noticed them following her and called Sifa, the daughter said.

Sifa was on the phone with her mom and watching from their apartment above the parking lot as the officials took Ntumba’s phone and wallet, and ended the phone call with Sifa. The agents did not ask for identification or give any explanation before they got Ntumba out of her car and put her in their vehicle, Sifa said.

Two videos taken by people nearby and posted online showed agents wearing vests with the word “police” on them standing with Ntumba in the parking lot.

Ntumba is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has no criminal record, according to her daughter. Sifa has an older brother, younger brother and younger sister. She said her mother has been in the United States for almost 10 years and has a pending asylum application.

The Maine Monitor ran Ntumba’s name through TLOxp, a background check system from TransUnion, which found no criminal record. The Monitor could not talk with Ntumba’s lawyer, and ICE did not immediately answer questions about why it had detained Ntumba.

ICE told Fox News that it had arrested 50 people in Maine on Tuesday, out of 1,400 targets in the state. Patricia Hyde, ICE deputy assistant director, said the agency was arresting people who had committed crimes of sexual assault, drug trafficking, driving under the influence and assault, who came from Senegal, Honduras, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guatemala.

“You name it; they’re on the target list,” Hyde said.

Videos and reports of ICE arrests in Portland and the surrounding area began circulating on social media on Tuesday. The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, an advocacy group that runs a hotline to track federal immigration enforcement activities in the state, received nearly 1,000 calls on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson.

A neighbor who witnessed the detention said Ntumba “was very calm. She was not screaming.” The neighbor, who asked to not be named out of fear of retaliation, said the encounter was traumatizing for others in the building.

The Monitor was unable to determine where Ntumba is being held. She was not at the Cumberland County Jail on Wednesday morning. The online detainee locator system run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not return a record of her whereabouts; it can take up to 48 hours for detainees to be entered into the system. 

Reporter Sean Scott contributed reporting.

One in five long-term nursing home residents in Maine are still receiving antipsychotic medication, despite statewide efforts to reduce reliance on these medications, which can come with health risks for older adults.

Maine made a concerted effort to reduce use of antipsychotic medication in nursing homes in the years after a national focus brought attention to the issue, ultimately reducing the rate in Maine from 27 percent of long-term stay nursing home residents in 2011 to 17 percent in 2017.

But then Maine’s rate crept back to 20 percent in 2024, higher than the national average of 14.7 percent and the sixth highest across all states, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Long-stay residents are in nursing homes for more than 100 days. Short-stay residents are in them for 100 days or fewer, often to recover after being discharged from a hospital, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

In response to the increase, a stakeholder group including nursing facilities administrators and medical directors reconvened to address rising rates, among other quality measures, and published a report that found that lower-rated nursing homes prescribed antipsychotic medication more often than high-performing, five-star facilities. In addition, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services included rates of antipsychotic medication as one of the quality metrics to be tied to reimbursement for nursing homes.

But the rates both nationally and in Maine don’t seem to have budged as of November, the most recent month data were available. Maine’s rate is now 12th highest in the country. South Dakota is highest at 24 percent, and Wyoming is second highest at 22 percent, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Antipsychotics, such as Risperdal and Seroquel, are designed to manage psychosis and delusions. They can be particularly problematic for older adults by increasing their risk of drowsiness, confusion and falling. Side effects can include tremors, and heart and circulatory problems. The use of antipsychotic medications among nursing home residents is “an indicator of nursing home quality,” a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesperson told The Maine Monitor.

There are times when antipsychotic medications are necessary to prevent a resident from harming themselves or others, but those occasions are rare, Dr. Susan Wehry, associate clinical professor at the University of New England in Biddeford and a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist, previously told The Monitor. Wehry said what may appear to be challenging behaviors from residents with dementia may actually be residents trying to communicate an unmet need or frustration.

It can be challenging for nursing homes to cut down on antipsychotic medication because residents often are referred to the facilities with existing prescriptions and rely on them. The nursing homes then must figure out whether and how best to wean residents off the medication.

“In many cases, physicians not directly affiliated with the long term care facility are diagnosing patients and prescribing these medications prior to the admittance of a resident to a facility,” said Angela Cole Westhoff, president and CEO of the Maine Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes across the state. “Even family members, with the best of intentions, can sometimes urge their use.”

Nursing homes are increasingly caring for residents with severe mental health and behavioral health issues, she said, adding that her organization continues to participate in statewide efforts to educate facilities about these medications.

Experts said it has been difficult to bring rates down due to staffing shortages in nursing homes, reliance on temporary agency staffing and MaineCare underfunding. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic redirected attention away from the use of antipsychotic drugs and more toward infection control.

“To lower the use of these medications, we need a collaborative effort from all parties involved including physicians, family members, and nursing homes,” Cole Westhoff wrote in an email. “We also need adequate Medicaid reimbursement to support direct care givers wages, which is why MHCA continues to fight for wage reform and salary increases tied to reimbursement rate increases.”