02/10/2026
Last evening Bangor City Council had 2 Ordiances. One presented by Councilor Beck, (restricting or applying various instructions to Bangor PD and other Bangor employees, on any potential interaction with ICE). The other, presented by Councilor Faloon that would prevent the city of Bangor from hiring anyone that worked for any federal immigration authority.
The theme for both ordinances was described to be for public safety and restricting funding and resources to Bangor only. When asked of city officials how much funding goes to anything to do Federal Immigration. The answer was none. The other question was if this would stop ICE from doing what they would do regardless. The answer was no.
While I understand it was an attempt to make our immigrants feel safer, there were other serious questions about enforcement, (Apparently it would be the city manager’s responsibility to enforce these) potential loss of important federal funding, liability, etc.
The State of Maine already has a similar (to Beck’s proposed ordiance) law to be effective around June, and will apply to all towns. It was voted to not move forward with the non hiring of former immigration employees (Faloon’s proposed ordnance). Councilor Beck’s
got forwarded for first reading on Feb 23, than will go to workshop committe the following Monday.
Go to bangormaine.gov, find the adenda to read the ordiances, and watch last night’s workshop discussion for more information.
It’s not too late to weigh in, going to first reading does not mean it passed into effect.
You can come , or zoom in, to publicly comment at 7 pm on the 23rd. Or you can write to [email protected].
Your voice matters.
