SCARBOROUGH — The eyes of the country are on Scarborough, residents warned town councilors Wednesday night.

In turn, councilors unanimously approved a proclamation calling on Maine’s congressional delegation to investigate the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in town.

Scarborough is home to the state’s only ICE processing facility — which has faced increased scrutiny and protest after an ICE agent identified as David Brouillette shot and killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford on the morning of July 13.

For many of the more than 100 residents at the council meeting, the actions of the federal agency that’s housed in their town reflect on them.

They felt ashamed and embarrassed, sad and angry, they said.

“This is not the Scarborough I grew up in,” multiple people said.

People hold a vigil outside the Scarborough Town Hall before a special Town Council meeting Wednesday to issue a proclamation asking Maine’s congressional delegation for support in evaluating the necessity of the ICE facility in Scarborough. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)<?xml version="1.0"?> Purchase this image

Many Scarborough residents — and the dozens of others from nearby communities who rallied in the rain outside Town Hall before the meeting with “ICE out” signs — said they knew someone whose life had been upended by ICE.

At the meeting, they spoke of coworkers who suddenly stopped coming to work out of fear of being detained or because they had been taken into custody. Children who went hungry because they relied on school for meals but were too afraid to leave home. Pregnant women whose partners were taken by ICE just weeks before they were due to give birth, and who worried what would happen to their children if they had a medical emergency. Families too scared to attend their loved one’s funeral because the cemetery wasn’t safe for them.

“Most of you can go to the beach,” said Mufalo Chitam, executive director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. “They can’t.”

In Biddeford, she said immigrant children are afraid to leave home.

“Most of you have been with us since the 13th,” Chitam said, thanking the community for their support. “We haven’t slept. We haven’t slept.”

After the rally outside Town Hall, the group filtered into the meeting room at 6 p.m., their raincoats and hair dripping from the rain. The line for public comment snaked across the room, and the meeting — which was scheduled to last an hour and had only one item on the agenda — ended around 8:15 p.m.

The meeting concluded with an unusual unanimous vote. The Scarborough Town Council passed the proclamation, which called for increased transparency and accountability of federal immigration enforcement activities and the evaluation of alternative uses of the ICE building at 40 Manson Libby Road, including the discontinuation or relocation of ICE operations.

“This has brought the conversation to our front door, whether we invited it or not,” Councilor Jon Anderson said.

Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine’s 1st Congressional District, sent the council a letter in support of the proclamation ahead of the meeting.

“The facility at 40 Manson Libby Road has become a symbol of fear, uncertainty, and intimidation for many immigrant families and their neighbors,” she wrote. “That should concern every one of us.”

People protesting Immigrations and Customs Enforcement attend a Scarborough Town Council meeting on Wednesday night, when the councilors unanimously passed a proclamation calling for increased transparency and accountability of federal immigration enforcement activities and the evaluation of alternative uses of where ICE has its facility at 40 Manson Libby Road. (Derek Davis/Staff Photographer)<?xml version="1.0"?> Purchase this image

But for most attendees, the proclamation wasn’t nearly enough. 

A few days before, a petition began circulating online asking for the town to take three actions: pass an ordinance to limit the town’s engagement with federal immigration agents, order an investigation of the ICE facility and document ICE’s local impact.

Councilors agreed the proclamation should just be a first step.

“We’re going to pass this tonight, and we’re not going away,” Councilor Bill Donovan said. “We’re with you.”

The rally drew people from across southern Maine.

“People who get detained in Portland are taken to the Scarborough facility,” Portland resident Lou James-Olson said. “It affects our communities directly, even you don’t live in Scarborough.”

Many of the community members gathered outside wore masks or other face coverings. Fearing retaliation or doxing, they hesitated to share their names with the Portland Press Herald. One person even wore a body camera.

For Yoshimi Hooten-Ng, a new Scarborough resident, the issue is personal. She said she would have reconsidered living in Scarborough if she had known earlier about the ICE facility, because of the way that she looks.

“It’s hard not to give into despair,” Jessica Laracy said, standing next to Hooten-Ng.

In the wake of the shooting just 10 miles down Route 1 from Scarborough, many communities have grappled with feelings of helplessness and impuissance. What power does an individual or a town have against a federal agency?

But outside of Scarborough Town Hall, residents turned their anger into action, their grief into determination.

Democracy is hard work, Laracy and Hooten-Ng agreed, but it beats sitting on the couch feeling hopeless.

“Apathy got us to this point,” Rick Olson added.

Standing together, they felt power, solidarity and hope. Change begins at the local level. It begins with communities joining together, people looking out for their neighbors, constituents demanding accountability, residents said.

Still, many were unsure about what power the Town Council had to get ICE out of Scarborough.

Josh Soley, the leasing and property manager for the facility at 40 Manson Libby Road, said the U.S. General Services Administration leases the facility from owner AEY LLC, and it can choose to sublet to any agency. The lease began in 2019 and lasts 15 years.

The GSA serves as the landlord for federal government agencies, it would have to make the decision to swap tenants, Soley said.

But the residents of Scarborough aren’t letting the town off the hook.

“They should do everything in their power to make ICE feel unwelcome,” Matthew Arbor said, flying an upside down American flag.

“We appreciate the Town Council speaking through a proclamation,” the petition asking the town to take further action reads. “But a proclamation cannot be the end of Scarborough’s response.”

During the meeting’s public comment, community members poured out their fears, their rage, their sorrow.

“Our communities are under attack,” a resident said.

“This is an abomination,” another said.

The ICE facility is a danger to the town, multiple residents said. They’re worried about ICE violating their right to due process.

“Many of us are afraid because if you get shot, you don’t really get a chance to pull out your passport,” said Alex, a resident.

“This could have happened to any one of us,” another community member said. “It did happen to one of us.”

Even if Scarborough takes every lawful action it can, the town can’t guarantee it will result in ICE’s relocation, Anderson said. But Scarborough will try.

“Real accountability often comes from residents who stay involved, showing up, voting and speaking out,” Anderson said. “Tonight is just the start of a difficult conversation.”