Spike strips were discovered outside the ICE facility in Scarborough about a week after a local town hall meeting where organizers discussed gathering information on ICE personnel and, separately, a possible vehicle blockade, according to reporting by Blaze News and the Maine Wire’s Jon Fetherston.
The Sept. 14 meeting at Scarborough Town Hall was convened by the Indivisible Team of Southern Maine (ITSME), a local chapter of the national Indivisible network. Attendees wore red-and-white “STOP ICE” shirts, and the group played a video endorsement from Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine. Town Councilor Jonathan Anderson, a Democrat, and state Rep. Sophia Warren, also a Democrat, spoke at the event. Warren asked attendees, “Are we prioritizing our immigrant neighbors and people of color?” according to Blaze News.
A masked organizer identified as Rich Nowak told the gathering to collect information on ICE staff. “We get pictures of who’s working down there, we get license plate pictures, we get pictures of the people themselves,” Nowak said, according to the outlet. “We want to know all that information.” A separate attendee raised the idea of blockading ICE vehicles to search them; Blaze News reported organizers neither endorsed nor condemned the suggestion.
Nowak wore a hat bearing the phrase “86 47,” which Blaze News described as language some interpret as a call for violence against former President Donald Trump. The outlet reported that Nowak told reporters he saw no contradiction between urging the identification of ICE agents while keeping his own identity concealed, and that he distributed the name and contact information of the ICE facility’s landlord to those present.
Spike strips, paint and a disputed sign
About a week after the meeting, spike strips turned up outside the Scarborough ICE facility, Blaze News reported. They were found near red paint left over from a defacement of the parking lot in July, which followed a fatal shooting involving an ICE agent in nearby Biddeford. A sign posted on town property referred to that shooting as “murder.” Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey is reviewing the Biddeford shooting under the state’s deadly force statutes, according to the outlet.
At a later protest, a masked companion of Nowak’s was seen taping over both the front and rear license plates of his vehicle before driving away with the plates still covered, Blaze News reported. The outlet also said some protesters attempted another blockade-and-search operation at the site, and that both ICE personnel and protesters said the spike strips endangered agents and detainees.
Blaze News reported its reporter was later invited inside the ICE building. One agent there wore a hat reading “No Kings, No Tyrants, No Fascists, No Nazis,” which he said he wore to needle protesters, and later put on a “Hope Not Hate” hoodie while returning lawn chairs the facility had previously let protesters store on-site — an arrangement the outlet said ended that day.
Reports of vandalism against a reporter
Fetherston, of the Maine Wire, told Blaze News that after stepping away from his car to interview rally attendees near the protest, he found a rear tire slashed. A local Firestone shop confirmed the tire had been cut with a knife or similar tool, according to the report. The Maine Wire has separately reported earlier incidents tied to coverage of the Biddeford shooting, including an allegation that Fetherston was struck in the head with a skateboard by a rally attendee and that another protester punctured all four of his tires with a screwdriver.
Background on the groups and the facility
ITSME is described by Blaze News as a local branch of the national Indivisible nonprofit, which the outlet said has 29 chapters across Maine, including Indivisible Scarborough. That group runs a daily “Quiet Resistance” watch outside the ICE facility alongside ITSME.
According to the report, the federal government holds a 15-year lease with the property’s owner. The town could potentially change its zoning rules before any lease renewal, the outlet noted, though some activists have floated spot zoning targeting the site specifically — an approach the report said may not be legal. Councilor Anderson has previously told the Portland Press Herald that the municipality has “no mechanism” to evict a federal tenant. One protester told Blaze News the goal was to be “enough of a pain in the neck that they [ICE] move somewhere else.”
Blaze News also reported that some younger protesters said they oppose deportation in all circumstances, including for people convicted of violent crimes or child sexual abuse, arguing that removal could cause further harm in their countries of origin.
