Gov. Janet Mills speaks in the Maine House chamber on the last legislative session day in April. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)

Restrictions on the ability of local police to work with federal immigration agents. Online casino games run by Maine’s tribal nations. A new office aimed at improving services and protections for children. And limits on the harmful impacts of medical debt.

Starting Wednesday, these provisions and others will become Maine law.

Lawmakers approved close to 300 laws during the legislative session that ended in April, and most of those measures take effect Wednesday. Among them is the supplemental budget signed by Gov. Janet Mills that includes hundreds of millions of dollars for education, housing and other initiatives, including $300 affordability checks.

Here are a few of the new laws and funding measures that take effect Wednesday.

NEW ICE BILLS FOLLOW BIDDEFORD KILLING

Immigration enforcement was a key topic for lawmakers this year following a surge in activity by federal authorities in Maine in January. Among their initiatives was a new law that requires immigration agents to have a warrant signed by a judge in order to access private spaces at public facilities, such as dorms on public university campuses.

Another new law prohibits landlords from sharing sensitive tenant information, including immigration-related information, with federal agents unless they present a judicial warrant.

LD 1971, a controversial bill to limit the ability of local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration officers, will also take effect Wednesday. The bill was approved by lawmakers last year but its effective date was delayed by the governor, who decided in December to allow it to become law without her signature. Maine State Police say they have been following the law for months already, though not all local agencies have.

Immigration and civil rights advocates lauded the new laws in a news conference Tuesday, saying they come at a critical time following the killing of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old Colombian man, by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Biddeford on July 13.

“(These) laws are a necessary and key part of Maine’s response to the federal administration,” said Sue Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project. “They are needed to protect all of us and to begin to repair some of the trust in Maine’s public institutions where trust has been lost.”

BUDGET INCLUDING $300 CHECKS TAKES EFFECT

Also taking effect Wednesday is the supplemental budget signed into law by Mills. In addition to hundreds of millions of dollars for housing, education and other initiatives, the budget includes $267,000 annually for a new program that will require the Department of Public Safety to track sexual assault forensic examination kits — something lawmakers had been working for years to approve and fund.

The first department report to lawmakers on the tracking system is not due until January 2028, and a spokesperson for the agency said Tuesday that it will be working on implementation over the next several months.

With new funding available Wednesday, school districts will be able to apply for reimbursement from the state for retrofitting school buses that do not have crossing arms. Districts are expected to be able to apply for the funds through June 30, 2027. The $5.9 million in new funding comes after two fatal bus accidents killed schoolchildren in Maine last year.

The implementation of the new budget also means eligible residents should soon be receiving the $300 affordability checks Mills proposed and lawmakers approved. The one-time payments are available to Maine taxpayers who had federal adjusted gross incomes of less than $50,000 if single or less than $100,000 if married and filing jointly on their 2025 taxes.

The state has said it will send the checks by mail starting late this month.

GAMBLING, CHILD ADVOCACY LAWS AMONG OTHER NEW INITIATIVES

Maine’s gambling landscape is set to expand under a new law giving Maine tribes the exclusive ability to offer online casino games. The law is being challenged in a federal suit brought by the Oxford Casino, which contends that it gives tribes an illegal “race-based monopoly,” but the suit does not interfere with the law’s effective date.

The state is in the process of writing rules for iGaming, with online table games such as poker, blackjack and roulette expected to become available sometime this year, or early in 2027.

Another law creates a new Office of the Child Advocate in state government. The office will receive and investigate complaints, share information with the public and advise the governor and state lawmakers on how to improve services and protections for children.

Mills has until Oct. 1 to appoint an interim child advocate who will oversee the establishment of the new office.

Starting Wednesday, the state will also have stronger protections in place to guard people against the harmful impacts of medical debt. A new law sponsored by Sen. Donna Bailey, D-Saco, prohibits medical debt collectors from placing a lien on a person’s home or garnishing their wages.

Staff Writer Emily Allen contributed to this story.

Editor’s note: This story was updated July 29 to correct the town in which Sen. Donna Bailey lives.