Top police officials in Portland and South Portland communicated regularly with a federal agent during the immigration enforcement surge in late January, according to records released Thursday.
Text messages obtained by the Portland Press Herald show that while the local police departments said they do not contact or work collaboratively with immigration officials, they were in a group chat while federal agents were on the ground detaining more than 200 people.
The conversations, dated Jan. 21-26, indicate police leaders in both cities collaborated to keep immigration agents safe during their hotel stay and helped surveil protesters.
Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Jeffrey Larocque gave Portland and South Portland police officials general but limited information about his agents’ plans, including advanced notice of when they would leave town. In some cases, the local officers were encouraging and congratulatory.
On Saturday, Jan. 24, after several days of arrests, Larocque wrote, “Over 200 illegals taken off your hands. My team had two runners (Dominicans drug targets) but the young guys and gals chased them down at Market Basket.”
“Nice work. Thank you for the difficult job you all have keep up the good work, stay safe!” replied South Portland police Chief Daniel Ahern.
City officials from both communities contend that the text messages align with what they promised the public — that their police departments don’t work with immigration authorities. Portland police Chief Mark Dubois said in a phone interview Thursday that the department would have done the same to protect anyone in the city, regardless of whether they are immigration agents.
In the texts, obtained through a public records request, federal immigration agents did not discuss immigrants who were targets of the enforcement or specify where enforcement would take place.
Instead, the messages mostly focus around coordinating a response to protesters.
WATCHING THE WATCHERS
As early as Jan. 21, a day after the enforcement began in earnest, protesters figured out where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were staying. Crowds armed with pots, pans, drums, cowbells and whistles gathered on sidewalks outside several downtown Portland hotels each night.
Text messages from ICE agents indicate the strategy was effective.
“They wait outside to follow us to garage and then the hotel! These people are insane!” Larocque wrote, adding that the protests were nonviolent. He indicated that if that changed, he’d consider a “move down to Portsmouth.”
At that point, Ahern, the South Portland chief, offered to add Portland police Maj. Jason King into the conversation. King noted that “I’ve had our crime analyst watching all week. I would be shocked if anyone can wake at 0500 to protest.”
The texts indicate that agents from ICE and Portland police were monitoring social media chatter. King also offered to set up a camera with 360-degree capabilities.
Dubois said the cameras weren’t set up; they had offered to help catch people who may have been vandalizing federal vehicles because of discussions spotted on social media. He said the department would do the same for any Portland resident concerned about vandalism.
“They’re creating a disturbance,” he said, referring to the protesters. “The front desk was making complaints. The hotel management were concerned. So it was a response to the safety of all the visitors of the hotel, not just the federal agents.”
About a half dozen protesters were arrested in Portland during the week of Jan. 19, all on charges of disorderly conduct.
Ahern said in an emailed statement Thursday that while his officers assisted at one of the protests, they didn’t arrest anyone or take any action.
“You guys are a welcome support despite some of your residents!!” Larocque texted King and Ahern.
WHAT POLICE PROMISED
Officials from South Portland told city councilors during a meeting last May that the city would not participate in immigration enforcement.
Ahern said at the time that the department doesn’t work cooperatively with ICE, an assertion that was emphasized on the city’s website during the federal operation. He contends that while the messages may seem collaborative and cordial, “there was no collaboration on enforcement of immigration status offenses.”
“Maintaining a positive working relationship with federal law enforcement is important and helpful for local law enforcement,” Ahern said. “No South Portland officers were required to be involved in situations involving ICE in the City of South Portland. The agent communicated helpful information. For this, I was thankful.”
In Portland, at several points throughout 2025 and 2026, Dubois said his officers don’t contact ICE for any reason. In April 2025, he said his department takes a hands-off approach with immigration enforcement and that any immigration issues would be handled in the court system.
Police spokesperson Brad Nadeau struck a similar tone a few days before the enhanced ICE operation in Maine. He said the agency doesn’t engage in immigration enforcement and wouldn’t be notified of federal action.
At a meeting this month as Portland city councilors considered buying a new police drone, they asked Dubois for information about his department’s interactions with ICE.
“The only interaction we would have with them is securing public safety if something were to happen in one of their enforcement initiatives and it resulted in something where 911 was being called,” Dubois said at the March 2 meeting. “Something to that effect, where we would respond naturally anyway.”
He said Thursday that King’s text messages about the ICE protests in Portland correspond with that sentiment.
“We definitely don’t collaborate with their enforcement action,” Dubois said.
SOCIAL GATHERING PLANNED
The batch of records released by each city also included emails showing that in December 2025 federal agents planned to invite officers from several of Maine’s largest police departments to a group outing at a hockey game in Portland. Those officers appear to be connected to federal crime task forces.
Some two dozen Homeland Security agents, along with detectives from Portland, Lewiston and Gorham police departments, had plans to rent out an ice-level lounge during a Maine Mariners hockey game, according to an email from Gary Tirabassi Jr., DHS’ resident agent in charge in Maine.
“I think it’s important for us to take some time together as a team to relax and unwind,” Tirabassi wrote in a Jan. 23 email.
Spokespeople for the Portland and Lewiston police departments said their officers included in the email are members of federal task forces focusing on internet crimes against children and were not going to discuss immigration enforcement. Officials in Gorham did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The game had originally been scheduled for Dec. 26, about a month before “Operation Catch of the Day” began, but was postponed until April due to a leaguewide players’ strike. Tirabassi’s email from January indicates the agents and officers plan to attend the game in April.
THE END OF THE SURGE
Starting on Jan. 22, three days into the operation, Larocque notified police that his agents would be leaving town a couple of days later because of a predicted winter storm.
“Appreciate the help,” Larocque wrote. “We certainly pissed off the libs!”
“Haha for sure,” King replied.
Dubois said he was aware of the text messages and the department didn’t notify anyone about agents’ plans to leave. He said the message didn’t seem to indicate a definitive end to the enhanced operation.
Nadeau, the department spokesperson, said the message from Larocque appeared to be a “courtesy heads-up” to let officers know they likely didn’t need to monitor as many protesters by the hotel.
“There was no specific timeline,” Dubois said. “They didn’t tell us when they were coming either.”
On Sunday, Jan. 25, Ahern asked Larocque, “is it accurate for me to tell my manager the (sic) you guys have wrapped up?”
“Yes we left yesterday,” the HSI agent replied. It’s unclear if he was referring to the entire surge of agents or just a subset.
“The boss said over 260 arrests which is not bad for 4 days. Lots of African sexual assaults and Domestics. They’re going back to their shithole countries,” he texted. Neither King nor Ahern responded to that message according to the screenshots provided to the Press Herald.
Homeland Security later announced to the public that 206 people had been detained, but no list has ever been released and the agency has not given an accounting of crimes committed by people it detained. Judges have since found that dozens of people arrested should not be in custody and do not pose a danger.
Ahern notified South Portland City Manager Scott Morelli about the agents’ plans to leave, Morelli said in a statement Thursday, and Morelli told the City Council.
But the public didn’t know for a few more days.
For several weeks around the enforcement operation, immigrants in southern Maine hunkered down in their homes, afraid to go to work. Businesses closed temporarily and lost regular customers. Church sanctuaries and school desks sat empty.
Their anxiety continued for several days after Larocque’s messages and the police’s awareness that at least some of the extra agents had left town.
On Jan. 29, the public got its first official acknowledgement that the surge in enforcement was ending. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins told the public that she had spoken to Kristi Noem, then secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, who told her that ICE had ended its large-scale operation in Maine.
At the time, advocates reacted to the news with caution and encouraged community members to stay vigilant.
