The Wells police department has entered into a formal agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that would allow it to enforce certain aspects of federal immigration law. The department was listed as a pending applicant as of Tuesday, but on Thursday was included on ICE's list of participating agencies.
The department said the agreement would save time and resources, but one immigration lawyer said ICE is pursuing these agreements in order to expand deportation efforts.
ICE has signed similar agreements with several hundred state and local agencies across the country, under a legal provision known as 287(g). As of Thursday, Wells was the only law enforcement agency in Maine with a pending or approved request, according to ICE's website.
Wells police captain Kevin Chabot said the department would use the expanded authority to enforce deportation warrants without first calling in federal law enforcement agents, who he said are often stationed as far away as Boston.
"If we happen to arrest someone with a warrant for deportation, we would be allowed to hold that person and bring them up to the county jail under a federal detainer," Chabot said.
He said those situations are fairly rare, and that the agreement would not have a major impact on day-to-day operations.
"So it's really not a lot different than what we're currently doing," he said. "It just kind of gets rid of some of the redundancy."
But Anna Welch, with the University of Maine School of Law, said the Trump administration is leaning on the program to bolster federal immigration enforcement.
"They're seeking to enter into more of these agreements with local municipalities, because they don't have the manpower to follow through with this promise of mass detention and mass deportation," she said.
Welch also said the agreements can have unintended consequences, such as dissuading immigrant residents from reporting crimes to local police.
"If a victim of a crime or a witness to a crime is afraid of reporting the crime, right, for fear that they too might be arrested or detained or deported, that certainly has a chilling effect that undermines public safety," she said.
The Wells town manager could not be immediately reached for comment.
