ICE stopped lodging detainees in Cumberland County. Lawyers say that’s made their jobs even harder.

The calls to lawyers were desperate — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were suddenly packing up and moving dozens of detainees out of the Cumberland County Jail. But to where? On [that day](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/ice-detainees-removed-from-cumberland-county-jail/) in late January, the detainees didn’t know. Staff from the University of Maine’s Human Rights and Refugee clinic later discovered that out of nearly 60 men and women they were tracking, nearly 20 had been flown to an ICE facility in Louisiana. Others were taken to contracted correctional facilities in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Some were [released](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/ice-detainees-removed-from-cumberland-county-jail/) with help from immigration lawyers. [](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/ice-detainees-removed-from-cumberland-county-jail/) Related [ICE removes detainees from Cumberland County Jail, cancels contract after sheriff’s criticism](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/ice-detainees-removed-from-cumberland-county-jail/) The clinic had been meeting with detainees at the jail for almost a year, connecting them with legal resources. Director Anna Welch said her team conducted more than 300 consultations in that time, before ICE removed immigrants from the jail in Portland. The agency’s move came after criticism from the county sheriff, who called ICE’s arrest of one of his corrections officers “[bush league](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/01/22/cumberland-county-corrections-officers-ice-arrest-prompts-criticism-from-sheriff/).” “They didn’t like the feedback I gave them regarding their police tactics,” Sheriff Kevin Joyce said in a recent interview. Advertisement Joyce said he didn’t intend for ICE to pull its detainees. He spent more than a year disagreeing with immigrant rights advocates who protested at county commission meetings and urged local leaders to eliminate any agreements between the jail and federal immigration officials. Those advocates said the county was complicit in increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, targeting immigrants based on race and arresting people who traditionally have been allowed to work and live in the community while awaiting immigration court proceedings. Commissioners [agreed in April](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/04/22/cumberland-county-officials-vote-to-remove-ice-from-jail-contract-with-feds/) to remove ICE from the jail’s agreement with the U.S. Marshals Service, three months after ICE made the decision on its own_._ The jail is also still honoring detainer requests by ICE, Joyce said, which means ICE can take inmates into federal custody after they have finished serving a local criminal sentence. The county signed a new agreement on detainers in July 2025, [according to public records obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine](https://www.aclumaine.org/app/uploads/2025/12/C-210-Release-Procedures.pdf). Joyce said that ICE serves an important role in public safety, although he disagrees with its recent arrests of law-abiding asylum seekers. He said he also warned county commissioners that if ICE’s detainees weren’t held here, they would instead be held in places with less access for attorneys and family members. Advertisement “This group thought that if we don’t hold ICE inmates, ICE goes away,” Joyce said, referring to the protesters. “Guess what? ICE does not go away. They still operate.” [](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/04/22/cumberland-county-officials-vote-to-remove-ice-from-jail-contract-with-feds/) Related [Cumberland County officials vote to remove ICE from jail contract with feds](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/04/22/cumberland-county-officials-vote-to-remove-ice-from-jail-contract-with-feds/) It appears that ICE also has stopped holding detainees long term at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. Administrator James Bailey said the agency transferred 11 detainees from that jail in late January, and that no one has been booked there since. A spokesperson for ICE denied Monday that the agency withdrew detainees from Two Bridges but declined to comment further for “security purposes.” Welch said that even before ICE stopped holding detainees at the Maine jails, the government had been moving people to facilities in other states. She said it’s become even more difficult since to keep tabs on Maine immigrants in federal custody. Her team had better access to detainees in Portland, she said, than in other facilities. “We were able to serve a lot of people, because it was right in our own backyard,” Welch said. “It was easier for folks to access their family and their communities and their lawyers. But that’s also problematic, that it’s in our backyard.” TRANSFERS NOT NEW Advocates who spoke with the Press Herald said they generally oppose detention and that, under the Trump administration, ICE has been detaining more people than ever, including immigrants who were previously allowed to work and live in the community while waiting for important court dates. Advertisement Advocates said they have also noticed immigration authorities appear to be transferring detainees out of state more frequently. The Cumberland County Jail had also been used by ICE to hold immigrants from other states, far from their families, Welch said. Her team met regularly with those detainees, too, and helped connect them with legal help. Welch said roughly 60% of the detainees at the jail were residents of other states. County commissioners said this analysis ultimately played a role in their vote to eliminate any agreements with ICE. Commissioner James Cloutier said he thought it was inappropriate that ICE was using the local jail for out-of-state detainees. Cloutier said he was [initially hesitant](https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/20/cumberland-county-commissioners-put-off-vote-on-allowing-jail-to-hold-ice-detainees/) to support ending agreements with ICE before the April vote. The jail had been holding all kinds of federal detainees for more than 30 years, he said, but it wasn’t until ICE activity changed drastically in the last year that he felt the county and its jail “should have nothing to do with it.” “When it became obvious that ICE is a rogue organization that has no standards that an American ought to recognize, then it was certainly time to take the next step,” Cloutier said. Advertisement The Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project responded to more than 70 requests for help related to immigrants arrested in January, when the Department of Homeland Security was carrying out an operation focused on Maine. That includes many Maine immigrants [being held out of state.](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/02/05/families-lawyers-work-to-locate-maine-immigrants-moved-out-of-state/) [](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/02/05/families-lawyers-work-to-locate-maine-immigrants-moved-out-of-state/) Related [Families, lawyers work to locate Maine immigrants moved out of state](https://www.pressherald.com/2026/02/05/families-lawyers-work-to-locate-maine-immigrants-moved-out-of-state/) Melissa Brennan, ILAP’s co-legal director, said in April that the organization tries filing habeas petitions in federal court as soon as possible. These petitions, filed when someone alleges they are being held unconstitutionally, often lead to judges temporarily barring ICE from transferring petitioners outside the court’s jurisdiction. Habeas filings have reached record highs, according an analysis of federal court data by [ProPublica](https://projects.propublica.org/habeas-tracker/), which reported that there were more petitions filed in the first year of the second Trump administration than in the previous three administrations combined. There have been more than 1,400 habeas cases in Massachusetts since Jan. 1, 2025, ProPublica reported, and more than 260 in New Hampshire. ICE has been holding many Maine detainees in both states since the agency decided to stop using the Cumberland County Jail, according to court records and attorneys. Immigrants who are detained in New England also have a better chance at getting bond because of a federal appeals court decision from [four years ago](https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca1/19-2019/19-2019-2021-08-19.html) that requires the government prove whether an immigrant is a flight risk or threat to public safety. Courts in other parts of the country place the burden of proof on detainees seeking to be released. “There are also the general challenges of maintaining consistent communication with clients who have limited and unpredictable access to phones, navigating varying detention center procedures, managing time-sensitive filings from afar, and ensuring that no critical detail is lost despite the physical distance between attorney and client,” Brennan said in a statement. Population numbers at federal prisons in New Hampshire and Massachusetts have held steady, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a project from Syracuse University tracking government data. TRAC did not have access to the number of people being held ICE field offices, which experts say are not designed for long-term detention. Advocates have publicly decried the conditions faced by detainees held at the ICE field [office in Burlington, Massachusetts](https://www.sunjournal.com/2026/02/07/ice-detainees-from-maine-being-held-under-inhumane-conditions-at-mass-facility-attorneys-say/), and are pushing for more transparency on conditions and inmate numbers. [](https://www.sunjournal.com/2026/02/07/ice-detainees-from-maine-being-held-under-inhumane-conditions-at-mass-facility-attorneys-say/) Related [ICE detainees from Maine being held under ‘inhumane’ conditions in Mass. facility, attorneys say](https://www.sunjournal.com/2026/02/07/ice-detainees-from-maine-being-held-under-inhumane-conditions-at-mass-facility-attorneys-say/) It’s also unclear how many people in Maine are being held in [Border Patrol](https://www.pressherald.com/2025/08/24/maines-border-patrol-agents-are-using-more-traffic-stops-surveillance-to-make-arrests/) detention at field offices, which both federal officials and immigration attorneys say are similarly unequipped for long-term detention. Copy the Story Link Tagged: [Cumberland County Jail](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/cumberland-county-jail/), [Cumberland County Sheriff's Office](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/cumberland-county-sheriffs-office/), [ICE](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/ice/), [immigration](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/immigration/), [Immigration and Customs Enforcement](https://www.pressherald.com/tag/immigration-and-customs-enforcement/) [](https://www.pressherald.com/author/emily-allen) [Emily AllenStaff Writer](https://www.pressherald.com/author/emily-allen) Emily Allen covers courts for the Portland Press Herald. It's her favorite beat so far — before moving to Maine in 2022, she reported on a wide range of topics for public radio in West Virginia and was. [More by Emily Allen](https://www.pressherald.com/author/emily-allen)