Twelve people, including eight Mainers, were arrested Tuesday while trying to deliver care packages of food, personal items, and a letter of support to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in Massachusetts.
In total, several dozen faith leaders and volunteers from Maine and Massachusetts participated in the action at ICE's Burlington field office, which has drawn scrutiny from immigration lawyers and elected officials over reports of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.
Andy Burt, one of the organizers of the action, said the group was not allowed into the ICE field office in Burlington, and was later arrested by local police for trespassing.
But Burt said the group is undeterred.
"For some people who were here, it was the first time that they had ever taken an action like this, and they really were moved by the spirit of it all," she said.
Before departing for Massachusetts early Tuesday morning, Rev. Allison Smith, senior minister of the Congregational Church in Cumberland, acknowledged it was unlikely that the care packages would make it to the detainees, but said it was about sending a message.
"This is a matter of doing what's right," Smith said, "even in the face of the possibility of not being successful."
“The ICE Burlington field office is a processing facility not a detention facility," an ICE spokesperson said in a written statement. "Illegal aliens are quickly processed and transferred to longer-term housing at detention facilities – usually within a few hours of their arrival at the processing facility."
