A handful of protesters have taken up a recurring post outside the Wells Police Department, denouncing the small Maine town’s lone-wolf partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The demonstrators line U.S. Route 1 with signs aimed at passing traffic, staging regular protests against what they call a betrayal of local values, The New York Times reported Monday. Wells sparked backlash in March when it became the only police department in Maine to formally partner with ICE. (RELATED: CASEY RYAN: Maine Stepped In It Big Time)
The agreement allows local officers to assist in federal immigration enforcement — authority typically reserved for ICE agents — in the seaside town of about 12,000.
Police Chief Jo-Ann Putnam defended the move as giving officers “another tool in their toolbox” and said it offers “a safer way to deal with designated criminal aliens,” according to the Times. She also noted that Wells is already one of the safest towns in Maine.
Putnam signed the deal with ICE on March 28. The ACLU of Maine blasted the agreement as an “open invitation to racially profile community members.”
The town, where the average home runs about $575,000, according to Realtor.com, is better known for its beaches than for crime.
Wells has a median household income of roughly $83,900 and a median age of about 52, according to Census Reporter. The protests began in April and have since become a weekly fixture — driven in part by concerns over the town’s reliance on foreign workers to staff hotels, restaurants and other seasonal businesses, the Times reported.
Marchers holding orange ribbons wave to detainees in the prison as they go by Strafford County Detention Center, where ICE detainees are being held, in Dover on August 24, 2019 during the New Hampshire Immigrant Solidarity Walk for Justice organized by Granite State and the New Hampshire council of Churches. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
Police say they’ve taken a cautious approach and haven’t participated in any ICE operations to date.
Still, tensions linger over how the agreement could shape the town’s image among tourists and international workers. (RELATED: Trump Says Farmers Are ‘Being Hurt Badly’ By Immigration Enforcement)
“No ICE in our community,” read one sign held by local resident Daria Cullen. Another read, “Fight ignorance, not immigrants.”
U.S. federal agents working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detain immigrants and asylum seekers reporting for immigration court proceedings at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building’s U.S. Immigration Court in New York, New York, Thursday, July 24, 2025. (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
Passing drivers mostly showed support, according to the outlet — honking and waving — but some expressed anger, flipping off demonstrators as they drove by.
The backlash has drawn concern from business leaders. Patrick Woodcock, CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, warned the ICE partnership could spook foreign workers at a time when the state’s economy is already fragile. Maine’s GDP shrank by 1.2% in the first quarter, he said, making it the slowest-growing economy in the Northeast. (RELATED: Susan Collins’ Approval Rating At Record Low: Poll)
“We do need to ensure that those who are authorized to work feel welcomed,” Woodcock told the Times.
