Dear MIRC Community,
Happy Friday!
Since the last time you read an advocacy update, humanity has done something truly amazing. On April 6th at 1:57 ET, the four astronauts onboard the Artemis II flew past the 252,752-mile mark from Earth, surpassing the Apollo 13 crew’s 1970 flight by about 4,102 miles. The crew then proceeded to complete a flyby of the moon, reaching a maximum distance of 252,756 miles from Earth. Even more impressive and a testament to the science behind the moon launch, Katherine Johnson’s, an African American mathematician and American human computer, was critical to the success of the first and subsequent U.S. crewed spaceflights, and led to the Artemis crew landing at EXACTLY 8:07 PM ET.
With that bit of mind-blowing, let’s get on to the MIRC Advocacy Update:
| Local |
| FYI: Most city and town halls and buildings will be closed on Monday, April 20, in observance of Patriots’ Day. |
| The Portland City Council had a busy agenda on Monday, from first reads to a proposed budget. You can catch up on what happened here. |
| Speaking of! The Portland school board approved its $179.3 million budget for 2026-27 Tuesday night after restoring several positions that had been cut under previous iterations. |
| For nearly seven months, a Houlton man has been trying to get public documents from town officials related to a 2022 surveillance camera purchase that he said may have violated federal funding guidelines. The Verkada cameras, equipped with facial recognition technology, were purchased in 2022 using $143,227.58 in American Rescue Plan Act funds. Harriman is seeking all 2021 correspondence related to the prepurchase planning of the surveillance system to show who knew about the technology and who made the purchase decision. |
| Absentee voting for the Annual Town Meeting Candidate Election of Mount Desert Island will be conducted at the Town Office in Northeast Harbor. The Annual Town Meeting will commence on May 4, 2026, with the election of officers, followed by the open floor meeting on May 5, 2026. The Town Clerk will conduct absentee voting for the Annual Town Meeting Candidate Election at the town office located at 21 Sea Street, Northeast Harbor, during office hours (M-F 9:00 am to 4:30 pm). |
| From our friends at Maine Women’s Lobby: Mark your calendars! May 1 from 4 pm-6 pm is a PFML Launch Celebration in Portland and Bangor! Our coalition partners at AARP Maine and the Maine Women’s Lobby are planning a fun event to highlight our coalition members and the exciting start to Maine’s PFML program. Both locations will have tabling space for coalition partners to share resources, information, and interactive activities to celebrate and highlight all the ways a person can interact with PFML. Reach out to Catie (catie@mainewomen.org) AND Bridget (bquinn@aarp.org) to sign up your organization to table at the events in Portland or Bangor. We are limited on table space so please reach out as soon as possible. |
| The Portland Police Department, in partnership with the Portland Public Library, will host “Coffee with a Cop” on the first Tuesday of May and June from 10:15–11:00 AM at the Library’s downtown branch. “Coffee with a Cop” brings officers and community members together, over coffee, to talk, ask questions, and get to know one another in an informal setting. For more information, please contact Jennifer Rogers at jrogers@portlandmaine.gov. |
| From our friends at Catholic Charities: Please join Catholic Charities Maine and me when the People of Hope mobile museum arrives in Portland! Visitors will interact with multiple exhibits to get the facts about poverty here in Maine and see how agencies across the nation bring hope to their neighborhoods. It’s a FREE, immersive museum experience open to all — all inside a 53-foot semi-tractor trailer! Stop by anytime during the two days and let me know your plans so that I can try to meet you there. WHEN: Friday April 24th – 11 am – 6pm ; Saturday, April 25th – 10am – 4pm WHERE: Catholic Charities Maine, 307 Congress Street, in the parking lot |
| State |
| Busy time at the state house, but there’s still lots that could happen between now and April 29, or what is referred to as “veto day.”The supplemental budget was sent to the House and Senate for a vote and signed by the governorLD 2176, 2106 passedLD 2058 was signed by the governorA 2% millionaire tax was enacted$300 checks were approvedA number of our members and partners showed up at different hearings and tabling events in the last couple of weeks of the sessionRead a recap from the Portland Press Herald |
| A research project is being conducted by Johanna Bard Richlin, a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maine. The purpose of the research is to learn how diverse communities feel about healthcare and medical technologies in the United States, including existing and novel vaccines. The study will also consider how the COVID-19 pandemic generated new social movements and collectives. The survey should take you about 15 minutes to participate. Except for your time and inconvenience, there are no risks to you from participating in this study. You may skip any questions you do not wish to answer. If you have any questions about this study, please contact me at johanna.richlin@maine.edu |
| Through our work with Mainers for Tax Fairness, we were able to raise awareness on immigrant contributions to our tax system. Check out the press statement and all the posts from members here:Maine Center for Economic Policy: FB | IG | TikTok (also this op ed)Full Plates Full Potential: FB | IGMaine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition: FB | IGMaine Equal Justice: FB | IGMaine Women’s Lobby: FB | IGMaine Council On Aging: FBLeague of Women Voters of Maine: FB | IGDemocracy Maine: FB | IGMaine People’s Alliance: FB | IGOxfam: FB | IG | TikTok |
| Federal |
| Maine Morning Star did an explainer on the impacts of the SAVE America Act on voter registration. As Congress weighs the SAVE America Act and similar bills like it, it’s important that people know the impacts of these bills and how to share their voices with their congressional delegation. We have put together an easy way for you to reach out to our Senators! |
| The New York Times took a look at how immigration enforcement strategy has shifted in the last few months, noting that while gone for now are the concentrated surges into American cities and mass raids of Home Depot parking lots. Immigration enforcement officials continue to deport nearly 1,000 people a day, many of them with no criminal record. The new strategy seeks to apply pressure at every point of contact between immigrants and the government, using the country’s vast bureaucracy, but it largely relies on fear. |
| As of March 1st, a new policy from the Small Business Administration went into effect. The new policy guidance requires 100% of all owners of a small business applying for the agency’s primary 7(a) loan program to be U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals with their principal residences within the U.S. As a result, legal permanent residents would not be eligible for SBA loans. |
| The White House is urging Republican-led states to crack down on immigration by reporting undocumented immigrants who enroll in schools, visit hospitals, or apply for any kind of benefits; Tennessee is being cited as a model. |
| In a bipartisan 219-209 vote on 04/15, the House moved forward on legislation that would extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the U.S. Votes are expected to take place on the rule and bill itself on the House floor on Thursday. |
| “[T]his feels like the biggest reorienting of federal resources toward a single end since 9/11,” said Theresa Brown, a former DHS official, regarding the administration’s diversion of funding “largely related to national security” to immigration enforcement instead |
| ICE published new detention data in early April for the first time since February, ending a 56-day gap during which the agency didn’t publish any new data. The new release covers data through April 4, 2026, and includes the first look at deportation and detention figures covering most of the winter. A breakdown of some of the key numbers, starting with deportations and working down to the specifics of who is being booked into detention and by which agency, can be found here |
| The Trump administration has cut legal immigration far more than illegal immigration, reports the Cato Institute. The cuts “are harming U.S. citizens seeking to reunite with their spouses, fiancés, children, and other relatives,” Bier writes. “They are also undermining U.S. prosperity and increasing the U.S. deficit.” |
| From our friends at Protecting Immigrant Families: our new poll has some really interesting findings that may be helpful in your work. All the details in our release, but there’s broad bipartisan support for safety net access for lawfully present immigrants, concern (especially among Democrats) about ICE enforcement at schools, hospitals, and social services providers, and real concern that enforcement is harming US citizens in immigrant families. |
| Data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) shows that 2025 began with a high number of citizenship applications submitted and decided favorably. By the end of 2025, far fewer were applying, with yet fewer approvals. |
| According to new data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, only 2% of all Notices To Appear (NTA) filed by the Department of Homeland Security during February 2026 were sought on the basis of alleged criminal activity. TRAC said the data emphasize that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has largely not been focused on “the worst of the worst,” like the president originally campaigned on. |
| Internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) data obtained by Reuters revealed on April 7 that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) shared the records of more than 31,000 travelers with ICE from the start of the Trump administration through February 2026, leading to the arrest of more than 800 people. |
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, I’ll leave you with this moment of reflection. The farthest humans have ever travelled was also where they cried and hugged over a lost one (the crew named the Integrity crater after one of the astronauts’ deceased wives). Humanity has gone further than we have in history, and we chose to go to the moon and name the brightest spot we could find after someone who was loved. We are small in terms of the universe, but when we go, we go with love.
Best,
Ruben Torres
Advocacy and Policy Manager