Dear MIRC Community,
Welcome to Spooktober and Friday!
Congratulations to Chuck for winning this year’s Fat Bear Week annual contest!! Fat Bear Week celebrates the feeding season at Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Voters choose the biggest brown bear in a bracket contest as the fuzzy omnivores prepared for the winter hibernation. More than a million people vote every year! If you need a visual break, you can catch the candidates on a livestream of the bears fishing for salmon.
Before we get to this Spooktober edition of our Advocacy Update, did your crush ask what today’s date was yet?
With that, let’s get on to the MIRC Advocacy Update:
| Local |
| In-person early absentee voting for the November 4, 2025, State Referendum and Municipal Election begins Monday, October 6, in the State of Maine Room, adjacent to the City Clerk’s Office, on the 2nd Floor of City Hall. Regular hours are 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday. All ballots requested to date will begin going out in the mail on Friday, 10/3. The last day to in-person absentee vote is Thursday, October 30, unless you have a special circumstance. The Clerk’s Office will be open until 7:00 PM on Thursday, October 30, only for voter registration and in-person absentee voting. Find answers to all of your voting questions here. |
| The City has been awarded $400,303 by MaineHousing to run an overnight winter warming shelter in Portland this winter. The City Council must still accept and appropriate this funding prior to the warming shelter’s activation. The Council is expected to discuss this item at its Monday, October 6th, meeting. |
| The Bangor community is coming together to present The Malaga Ship: A Story of Maine & the Middle Passage, a powerful performance that weaves together history, art, and storytelling to shed light on Maine’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade. The event is on Sunday, October 5, 3:00 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor. Tickets and event information are available here. |
| Our friends at MECEP recently put out a report titled “The impact of a $19 minimum wage on Portland workers and the local economy”. They do a great economic analysis on how the proposed wage increase could benefit 15,000 people without posing significant risks to the overall local economy. Read the full report here. |
| MIRC and Presente were present at the Cumberland County Commission worksession to talk about the impacts of local law enforcement cooperation with ICE. Read more about the meeting here. The minutes have not been finalized, but when they are, they’ll be posted here |
| Melissa Brennan, co-legal director at ILAP and friend of MIRC, recently got an op-ed published in the Portland Press Herald on the topic of the recent arrest at Gerald Talbot school: “Children across Portland now worry that school drop-off could be the last time they see their parent. In classrooms, that anxiety makes it harder to focus on math, reading, or writing. Outside of school, parents afraid of arrest may avoid parent-teacher conferences, after-school pickup,s or even enrollment. The harm is not abstract — it’s real and deeply personal.” Read the rest of the piece here! |
| Speaking of our friends at ILAP, don’t miss out on this month’s Golden Door edition, where they provide a great deal of information and updates on the latest in immigration policy! |
| While we are on the topic of newsletters, don’t miss out on the latest edition of Khmer Maine’s Newsletter. Our friends at Khmer Maine have been extremely busy, so make sure not to miss their updates! |
| Last newsletter update! Our friends at Preble Street have also been busy breaking ground and bread with 2,000 meals a day being served! Read about their great work and updates here! |
| State |
| The number of threats against state legislators went from 23 reported cases in 2023 to 53 in 2024 before jumping to 75 so far this year, according to data provided Thursday by the Maine Capitol Police in response to a records request from the Bangor Daily News. |
| Mainers can begin casting their votes for the Nov. 4 election when in-person absentee voting begins Monday. Two high-profile statewide ballot referendums about voting access and gun regulations will be decided next month, as will myriad local races. The Portland Press Herald put together an overview of what’s on the ballot. From what will be on the ballot, how to vote early, and how to learn more about your local races. |
| Friends of MIRC, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, filed a class action lawsuit on Monday challenging the denial of bond hearings to people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. |
| Join the next Coffee + Climate virtual chat at 9 AM on Friday, 10/10, to discuss climate change and action being taken in the Pine Tree State with guest speaker, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, U.S. representative for Maine’s 1st congressional district and former State Senator. Register to join the Zoom chat. |
| Maine Family Planning will close its primary care practice by the end of the month after being blocked from accepting Medicaid funds. |
| The Maine AFL-CIO recently put out its 2025 legislative scorecard from the regular session of the 132nd Maine Legislature. See how your local representatives scored! |
| Friendly reminder for eligible voters: Absentee ballots can now be requested online for the November 4, 2025, State Referendum and General municipal election. To learn more about other ways to request your ballot, please visit our Absentee Voting Information webpage. Ballots will be sent out once they are ready in October. |
| Federal |
| Most U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and most of Citizenship and Immigration Services will stay on the job, with the funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act giving those agencies more time before they run out of money. CBS News addresses some of the misinformation surrounding one of the central points of contention among lawmakers that contributed to the government shutdown, the claim that some legislators are pushing to extend health benefits to undocumented immigrants. |
| Despite being prohibited by California law, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to arrest migrants in courthouses, reports Nigel Duara of CalMatters. According to local media, at least two dozen people were detained on the grounds of the California court buildings. |
| Statement and FAQ on Threats to Designate Domestic Groups on the Left as Terrorists – Muslims for Just Futures released an FAQ to help groups, advocates, and communities understand the risks that can materialize from this designation. |
| On Sept. 19, President Donald Trump drastically increased the fee for H-1B visas for nonimmigrant temporary workers to $100,000, generating confusion for employers and alarm for advocates. Previously, H-1B visa fees were about $2,000 to $5,000 per application. You can find a breakdown of how this will and currently is impacting Maine businesses here. |
| At a side event during the United Nations’ annual gathering, top White House officials urged other countries to join the United States in rolling back asylum protections, reports Humeyra Pamuk and Ted Hesson of Reuters. |
| One California school district is continuing to protect its students, no matter their immigration status, reports CalMatters. The Los Angeles Unified School District serves 500,000 students and is the second-largest district in the country. The district has vowed to protect students from immigration enforcement on campus and set up a hotline for families seeking immigration-related assistance. |
| In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Rep. Pingree said town officials have been denied entry to the office and that such moves risk “deepening mistrust and eroding the very public confidence it requires to operate effectively.” |
| States don’t have to help enforce the Trump administration’s immigration policies to get disaster aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a federal judge in Providence ruled Wednesday. |
| The U.S. Department of Transportation announced an emergency interim final rule that will impact Commercial Driver’s License access |
| The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rolled out a new rule that allows employers to petition for unnamed beneficiaries electronically after the Labor Department issues an acceptance notice for labor certification. Previously, petitioning employers had to wait until a labor certification was fully approved before petitioning for unnamed beneficiaries. |
| The Houston Chronicle consulted with experts to clarify the limited health benefits available to immigrants and provides an in-depth explanation of how enhanced premium tax credits work, including who actually benefits from them. |
Well, you can’t say I didnt leave you without reading material to head into the weekend with! While we try our best to cover most of the news and stories from our Coalition, I probably missed some. Please feel free to share any highlights I missed, and you may see them featured in the next edition of our updates.
Before we head off to the weekend (or in my case, back to listening to Taylor Swift’s new album), don’t forget to be a friend and tell a friend something nice; it could change their life!
Best,
Ruben Torres
Advocacy and Policy Manager