Politics

ICE halted its surge in Maine. The state might not be quick to forget.

Published

5 months ago

January 31, 2026

BANGOR, Maine — The federal immigration crackdown in Maine may have ended, but the political fallout could continue to reverberate through the 2026 election.

Democratic Gov. Janet Mills launched her first Senate campaign ad on Friday — and it’s focused on attacking Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Political newcomer Graham Platner, competing with Mills for the Democratic nomination, held an anti-ICE protest at Sen. Susan Collins’ offices in Maine on Thursday, calling for her to block funds for the agency.

The message from both Democrats was clear: Immigration enforcement politics is not going away, and they think it could be a winning issue as they look to unseat the only Republican senator up for reelection this year in a state former Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024.

But Collins’ Thursday announcement that ICE was ending its immigration enforcement campaign in Maine — dubbed Operation Catch of the Day by the Department of Homeland Security — released some of the pressure that had been building in the state for more than a week, with local leaders expressing an initial sense of relief.

That campaign had left the state’s immigrant communities hiding in fear and Democrats and activists raging at their treatment. The surge disrupted life for many in southern Maine, with decreased attendance in schools, legal immigrants afraid to go to work and observers trailing ICE agents in the state.

Now, in the aftermath of an operation that led to more than 200 arrests and prompted widespread protests, lawmakers and community leaders are navigating the upheaval left behind. The political impact continues to ripple.

Collins’ announcement Thursday morning, which implied her conversations with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had helped sway the decision, is emblematic of how she wants voters to think of her: a powerful pragmatist who can get results, including by standing up to her own party. And it was a high-profile reminder of her longstanding case that her senior role in Washington helps her deliver for the Pine Street State.

Still, Democrats and activists, buoyed by rapidly shifting public opinion around immigration enforcement after videos of violent arrests and two fatal shootings in Minneapolis, are redoubling efforts for broader restrictions on ICE and its funding — along with a reckoning on what happened in Maine. Reports of the end of the operation in Maine, they said, are not enough.

“Senator Collins is going to try to use this moment to trick us. To say that she, somehow, used her power to impose upon ICE,” Platner said in protests at the senator’s Portland and Bangor offices on Thursday, held hours after the end of the surge was announced.

He mocked what he called a “pinky promise” she received from Noem to cheers from dozens of supporters who had gathered in Bangor in single-digit temperatures. “We all know it’s nonsense. What she is actually doing is trying to justify to us why she is about to try to give them 9 billion more dollars in funding.”

Platner demanded that Collins, the Senate’s top appropriator, cut off funding for ICE entirely, saying the Trump administration could not be trusted to follow the law.

Collins advocated for passing a DHS funding bill that Democrats blocked this week, citing its funding for body cameras for federal officers as well as de-escalation training. Negotiations are likely to continue in Washington after lawmakers agreed to pass just a two-week stopgap. Failure to pass DHS funding would not stop ICE, as the agency is well-funded from Trump’s major budget bill last summer, but Democrats are hoping to leverage anger at the agency to pressure the GOP for reforms. A Collins spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

The Maine senator’s positioning still held her somewhat as an outlier. Maine Republicans largely expressed support for federal immigration operations in the state while accusing Mills and Democrats of ginning up conflict with law enforcement. Local Republicans were largely quiet about Collins’ news of the drawdown.

Mills, in an interview earlier in the week, derided Collins’ calls for retraining ICE officers, telling Blue Light News that the “horse was out of the barn already.” On Thursday, she characterized the drawdown of ICE operations as insufficient, calling for Noem’s removal at DHS as well as congressional action to halt ICE funding until measures are in place at the agency to prevent what she characterized as “abuses of power.”

“Until there are substantive measures and changes in place, no state — including Maine — is protected from the weaponization of Federal law enforcement agencies against its own citizens by the Trump Administration,” she said in a statement on Thursday.

Mills and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, a Democrat, sent a letter to Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons on Friday demanding information about the immigrants arrested in the state and where they are now.

Community leaders and lawmakers are also working to understand what the drawdown means in practice, what happened to those detained by ICE and how to begin restoring trust among immigrants who have barely left their homes in weeks.

“It is welcome news. ICE operations in Maine have failed to improve public safety and have caused lasting damage to our communities,” said Carl Sheline, the mayor of Lewiston, which is home to a large Somali American population and was one of the Maine cities to see significant ICE activity. “We will continue working to ensure that those who were wrongfully detained by ICE are returned to us.”

Maine House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat from Biddeford, said among those detained by ICE was a man named Marcos, whom Fecteau had previously employed as a contractor working on his home. Fecteau said he talked on Thursday to the man’s wife, who said he was at an ICE facility in Arizona two days earlier, but the ICE database was no longer showing his whereabouts.

“Over the last week and a half there have been people in Maine who have been arrested and detained unlawfully. We want answers for those people. Who they are, where they are, what was the reason for their detention. Those things need to be answered,” Fecteau said. “I hope that Senator Collins, who clearly has some influence here — she spoke with Kristi Noem yesterday — I hope that was part of the conversation as well.”

In Augusta on Thursday, Maine lawmakers heard testimony over a bill that would require ICE to obtain judicial warrants to search private spaces of schools and health care facilities, among other locations.

Mills on Thursday threw her weight behind the new bill, citing in part the destabilizing effects of the recent surge. It was a notable move for the former prosecutor, who faced heat from progressives and Platner for not taking a stronger stance last year when she allowed a bill limiting law enforcement cooperation with ICE to go into effect without her signature, rather than signing it outright.

Activists and observers who had been trailing ICE in Maine noted some agents appeared to be off duty on Thursday, reflecting the drawdown.

“It’s good news. I hope it’s true. I hope that we can all find peace and rest in the next coming days,” Eric Nathanson, an activist with Jewish Action Maine who was arrested alongside other faith leaders earlier in the week while protesting at Collins’ Portland office. “If the surge is on pause, we reiterate the goal of no additional funding even more strongly.”

But the images and experiences from the past week were not easily forgotten.

“Three people in the past week were abducted in front of my workplace. My coworkers had to watch an ICE agent beat and drag people out of cars,” Nathanson said. “We will stay strong and stay vigilant.”

Politics

Why Belgium’s prime minister isn’t cheering on the Red Devils

Published

4 minutes ago

June 27, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Ah, Belgium. The country of fries, chocolate, Kevin De Bruyne and, some might say, chronic political division.

Beyond Brussels, a mighty international melting pot, the country is split between Dutch-speaking Flanders, French-speaking Wallonia and a small German-speaking community. Those linguistic divisions are mirrored in its politics: Belgium has separate party systems on either side of the language border, as well as a highly devolved federal structure that gives significant powers to its regions.

Today, Belgian politics is as fragmented as ever. It took 234 days to form a federal government after the June 2024 election (yes, you read that right). The delay was driven largely by the fact that no camp came close to winning a majority, forcing months of negotiations between parties with sharply different ideological and linguistic bases.

Flemish nationalism has also become a growing force, shaped by two right-wing nationalist parties: the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which wants to transform Belgium into a looser confederal state and ultimately give Flanders far greater autonomy, and the far-right Vlaams Belang, which openly campaigns for Flemish independence.

So, you might think the 2026 World Cup would offer Belgium’s leader a rare opportunity to rally and unify the country behind a shared national symbol, right?

Wrong.

Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who hails from the N-VA party, has expressed almost no public support for the Red Devils, Belgium’s national soccer team.

That contrasts with leaders in nearby countries that also qualified for the World Cup. The leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and France have all publicly backed their squads, whether on social media or through public appearances.

The reason may be simple: De Wever just doesn’t care for the sport.

A Belgian official told Blue Light News: “The prime minister is not a soccer fan, so he doesn’t seek to project that image publicly. To do otherwise would not be authentic.”

Flemish media have indeed reported that the prime minister has little interest in soccer. In a podcast appearance a few years ago, he said the sight of people “going totally crazy in a group in the stands” left him feeling “ice cold.”

But politics is likely part of the story too. De Wever has led the Flemish nationalist N-VA since 2004. Throughout his political career, he has argued that Flanders should have far greater autonomy and that Belgium should evolve into a confederal state. For a politician with that background, overt displays of Belgian national unity probably don’t come naturally, and in fact contradict emphasis on Flemish autonomy.

This is not the first time the N-VA’s relationship with the Red Devils has attracted attention. In 2015, after Belgium reached No. 1 in the FIFA world rankings, Francophone Socialist Party leader Laurette Onkelinx asked the Chamber of Representatives to applaud the team. All parties joined in, except the N-VA.

During Euro 2016, the N-VA had to deny it instructed ministers and MPs to avoid publicly celebrating the Red Devils so as not to appear too Belgian, after rumors circulated in Belgian media.

One of De Wever’s few comments about this year’s World Cup concerned Belgium’s official tournament song. His complaint: It did not contain a single word of Dutch.

“My staff have confirmed to me that not a single word is sung in Dutch. That is, to put it mildly, not elegant,” he said, in keeping with his ideologies of promoting Flanders, when asked about the song during a parliamentary committee hearing.

Sport is often treated as a vehicle for national unity. In New Zealand, Belgium’s opponent in today’s match, elite teams have successfully woven elements of Māori culture into their sporting traditions, most famously through the prematch haka, which has helped create a shared cultural identity that connects Māori and non-Māori New Zealanders.

In Belgium, however, this World Cup has not yet become that kind of unifying project. At least not from the very top.

Politics

World Cup match collides with Florida GOP bash

Published

2 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

HOLLYWOOD, Florida — Colombia and Portugal’s World Cup match in Miami Gardens won’t be the only major draw pulling crowds to South Florida this weekend: Florida’s Republican grassroots are heading to Hollywood for their “Sunshine State Showdown.”

The GOP’s event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is one of the state party’s biggest of the year. The GOP sold more than 800 tickets, with the party’s most devoted volunteers and many donors coming in from all over the state to get revved up for the midterms, gameplan their messaging and hear directly from top candidates.

The shindig will feature speeches from Sens. Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, as well as gubernatorial candidates Rep. Byron Donalds, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. It will also include two congressional debates.

Several “Showdown” attendees said they were thrilled about the convergence of their party’s bash with a World Cup match. South Florida has already seen a huge economic boom in recent years, and the Magic City is poised to become even more prominent given Miami is set to be home to Donald Trump’s future presidential library and will host the G20 in December. “Miami is again at the center of the universe,” observed Miami-Dade County GOP Chair Kevin Cooper.

Several prominent Republicans said they see the international event as an opportunity to showcase the state. State Rep. Dean Black of Jacksonville, who also chairs the Republican Party of Florida’s fundraising committee, said he’d enjoyed seeing fans from abroad show appreciation over social media for American culture. “They have fallen in love with the greatness of America,” Black said. “By being exposed to the Republican Party event, they will learn just how that greatness came to be.”

Collins’ team said that while the lieutenant governor wasn’t attending the game, he was “happy the state of Florida is hosting so many fans from across the world experiencing the beauty of our state.”

Former Fox 35 Orlando anchor Ryan Elijah, a GOP candidate for Congress who’s attending the showdown, said he would be checking his phone regularly for World Cup updates.

“What a night for Florida to see the biggest names in Florida politics and World Cup soccer be just miles apart!” he said in a text. “It’s a dream night for tourism numbers and local businesses!”

But the packed weekend also risks turning into a logistical headache. The Hard Rock Hotel is one of the pickup points offering shuttle services to Miami Stadium. It’s less than 9 miles away from the big game.

Angie Wong, Republican executive committeewoman in Miami-Dade, attended Wednesday’s match between Scotland and Brazil. She said her family paid $200 for parking near the stadium and that it took more than an hour just to get out of the parking lot.

“We were lucky — we actually left before the game ended,” she said.

Yet this year’s “Showdown” is a more scaled-back affair than in the recent past. It won’t, for example, feature a dinner like in previous years. But that’s probably good news for any attendees who don’t want to miss the soccer match — or who are just trying to get back home without getting stuck in traffic. And it doesn’t have any major Trump administration officials attending, in comparison to last year, when the event prominently featured White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and now-former deputy chief of staff James Blair, who is currently running Trump’s political operation for the midterms.

Florida’s GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis — who remains highly popular with the state’s grassroots — won’t be speaking at the “Showdown” this weekend and his office didn’t reply to an inquiry about whether he’d attend Saturday night’s game. The governor was in the Miami area during the last couple of days, including hitting the Brazil-Scotland game on Wednesday night and holding a press conference at the former Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention center on Thursday.

Evan Power, chair of the state party, had already arrived at the Hard Rock Hotel on Wednesday night and said he got to watch a Brazilian victory parade happening right outside the restaurant where he was having dinner. He added he hadn’t had any issues getting in and out of the events center and that Republicans sold out their room block, “so I think we were able to get in before the craziness.”

“In our room block, people are happy because they’re not paying the market rate that is out there,” Power said. “Seeing some of the prices — they’re crazy now.”

Politics

A drag queen, a rainbow festival and a game FIFA can’t control

Published

3 hours ago

June 26, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

SEATTLE — FIFA has not endorsed the Seattle host-city committee’s “Pride Match” designation, which will not be part of the official branding when Iran and Egypt meet tonight at Lumen Field.

“I think they’ve always been aware of what we’re doing,” said Louise Chernin, who as chair of the organizing committee’s Pride Match Impact Council began planning for the day nearly a year and a half ago.

Chernin began her match day at Rough & Tumble, a women’s sports bar in Ballard, a historically Scandinavian neighborhood where a crowd had gathered to cheer on Norway against France. The bar was notably free of FIFA’s commercial imprint: The World Cup posters on the walls and the merchandise for sale were all drawn by local artists without any official logos.

It all reflected the extent to which the “Pride Match” has become a gentle challenge not only to FIFA’s record of clamping down on some expressions of LGBTQ+ rights but also the corporate monoculture it creates in host cities through its restrictive sponsorship rules.

“If there’s going to be revenue spent, let us bring it to LGBTQ-owned businesses,” said Chernin, a longtime head of the Greater Seattle Business Association, an LGBTQ+ chamber of commerce.

Just down the street, fans had gathered at a “regnbue” street festival — the word is Danish and Norwegian for “rainbow” — organized by a local Ballard business association. The Norway-France match was being shown on an oversized screen, but when halftime hit attendees did not listen to any of the ads on the Fox broadcast.

Instead DJ SummerSoft took the stage as Sativa the Queen, a local drag performer, vamped through the break.