Securing Maine’s Border

SECURING MAINE’S NORTHERN BORDER

The U.S.-Canada border is the longest international border in the world at nearly 5,500 miles. Despite the attention on America’s southwest border with Mexico, our northern border saw increased drug trafficking and illegal crossings during the Biden Administration.

The Houlton Sector of U.S. Border Patrol, which oversees 611 miles of border between Maine and Canada, set an all-time apprehension record in FY2025, apprehending 725 individuals from 46 countries, surpassing a prior record of 685 set in 2001 (CBP, 2025b; Blankley, 2025). Expanded Border Patrol enforcement and improved infrastructure drove the record apprehensions even as overall illegal activity along the border declined sharply (CBP, 2025b). The sector reported an 80% decrease in illegal crossings along the Maine-Canada border and zero known “gotaways” since January 2025 (CBP, 2025b; Blankley, 2025). Total encounters in Maine declined by 71%, from 23,495 in FY2024 to 6,719 in FY2025 (Blankley, 2025).

• Agents apprehended members of foreign terrorist organizations including MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, as well as the South American Theft Group (SATG), and an individual with an Interpol Red Notice for murder (CBP, 2025b).
• In May 2025, Houlton Sector coordinated the removal of 42 individuals on a single flight from Presque Isle to Detroit for deportation proceedings (CBP, 2025a).

725 Border Patrol Apprehensions in Maine in FY2025

71% Drop in border encounters in Maine in FY2025

549 ICE detentions in Maine since Jan. 2025

20% Drop in Maine overdose deaths from 2024 to 2025

OPERATION CATCH OF THE DAY & INTERIOR ENFORCEMENT

In January 2026, DHS launched “Operation Catch of the Day”, a five-day enforcement surge across Maine that resulted in more than 200 arrests (DHS, 2026b). The operation targeted individuals the agency described as criminal offenders, including those convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and endangering the welfare of a child (DHS, 2026b).

Since the start of the Trump administration on January 20, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have detained 549 illegal aliens in Maine through March 9, 2026, including 245 arrests in just the first ten weeks of 2026 (Deportation Data Project, 2026; Ferguson, 2026). Meanwhile, Customs and Border Patrol agents set a 24-year record for arrests in FY2025 with 725 (CBP, 2025b).

PROTECTING MAINE COMMUNITIES

Overdose deaths declined sharply. Maine recorded 390 fatal drug overdoses in 2025, a 20% drop from 2024 and the lowest annual total since 2019 (Office of Governor Mills, 2026). Fentanyl’s share of fatal overdoses fell from 70% in 2024 to under 60% in 2025, reflecting a declining fentanyl presence in the drug supply (Tusinski, 2026). Nationally, CBP drug seizures in the first half of FY2026 were 24% higher than the same period in FY2024 (DHS, 2026d).

NATIONAL CONTEXT & THE CASE FOR CONTINUED ENFORCEMENT

The successes in Maine follow from a legacy of years of weak enforcement under the Biden administration. The state’s population grew by roughly 52,000 between 2020 and 2025 to reach 1.41 million, with international migration the major driver of growth through 2024 — before domestic migration overtook it in 2024–25 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2026). That includes an estimated 3,595 international migrants between 2020 and 2022 alone (Maine Monitor, 2023), with refugee and asylum-seeker arrivals logged by Maine Refugee Services rising from 645 in 2022 to 801 in 2023 (Rai, 2024). Maine is now home to an estimated 53,000 immigrants (Lacarte & Putzel-Kavanaugh, 2025). The Migration Policy Institute reports about 10,000 Notices to Appear filed in Maine immigration courts (Lacarte & Putzel-Kavanaugh, 2025), while FAIR estimates Maine’s unauthorized population at around 12,000 (FAIR, 2023). FAIR also estimates that illegal immigration costs Maine taxpayers about $90.4 million annually (FAIR, 2023).

The dollar values alone are not the full cost. In August 2025, DHS confirmed the involvement of two illegal aliens from Angola in separate vehicle crashes that killed two Maine-area pedestrians: Elizabeth Camacho in Lewiston and Stacy Strattard in New Gloucester. Both drivers were subsequently arrested by ICE (DHS, 2025). There is more work to be done.

These gains in Maine are part of a nationwide shift. In March 2026, CBP recorded 9,017 Southwest border encounters for the month—still 97% below the Biden-era peak—alongside 26,963 nationwide encounters in February 2026 (88% below the Biden-era monthly average) (DHS, 2026c; DHS, 2026d). As of April 2026, DHS reported the eleventh consecutive month of zero illegal aliens released at the border (DHS, 2026d). ICE has added an additional 12,000 officers and, as of January 2026, had carried out over 675,000 deportations in Trump’s first year (DHS, 2026a).

REFERENCES

Deportation Data Project. (2026, March 30). ICE data release: October 2022 to early March 2026. https://deportationdata.org/ne...

Federation for American Immigration Reform. (2023, March). The fiscal burden of illegal immigration on Maine. https://www.fairus.org/sites/d...

Ferguson, C. (2026, March 30). Only 11 arrested during ICE’s Maine surge had criminal records, new data show. Bangor Daily News. https://www.bangordailynews.co...

Lacarte, V., & Putzel-Kavanaugh, C. (2025, October). Maine’s immigrant communities: Diverse origins, characteristics, and challenges. Migration Policy Institute. https://www.migrationpolicy.or...

Maine Monitor. (2023, April 17). New Census figures show where Maine’s newcomers relocate to. https://themainemonitor.org/ne...

Office of Governor Janet T. Mills. (2026, February 24). Governor Mills announces 20 percent decline in fatal drug overdoses in 2025 [Press release]. https://www.maine.gov/governor...

Rai, A. (2024, February 2). More refugees, asylum seekers are arriving in central Maine in search of a better life. Central Maine. https://www.centralmaine.com/2...

Blankley, B. (2025, November 21). Border apprehensions up in Maine, overall drop from record highs of Biden era. The Center Square. https://www.thecentersquare.co...

Tusinski, D. (2026, February 9). Maine saw 20% drop in fatal drug overdoses in 2025, the 3rd straight year of steady decline. Portland Press Herald. https://www.pressherald.com/20...

U.S. Census Bureau. (2026, January). Decreases in net international migration slowed population growth across the country. https://www.census.gov/library...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (2025a, May 30). Maine Border Patrol experiences spike in apprehensions [Press release]. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/l...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (2025b, November 20). Unprecedented number of apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol in Maine [Press release]. https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/l...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2025, August 21). Following fatal car crashes in Maine, ICE arrests two illegal aliens [Press release]. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2026a, January 20). DHS sets the stage for another historic, record-breaking year under President Trump [Press release]. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2026b, January 21). ICE launches “Operation Catch of the Day” targeting the worst of worst criminal illegal aliens across Maine [Press release]. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2026c, March 19). Tenth straight month of zero illegal aliens released at the border [Press release]. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2026d, April 9). Trump administration delivers 11 straight months of zero releases at the border [Press release]. https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/...