An ordinance amendment that would provide language specific to Rockland Police Department's handling of immigration was defeated City Council members during a June 9, 2025 vote. The ordinance, #35 Chapter 2, Sec 1308, Federal Immigration Enforcement, was aimed to create a new section to Chapter 2, Police Dept, establishing clear guidelines for how to interact with federal authorities.

Councilor Kaitlin Callahan brought the idea to the City agenda, which, after several months of discussion and vote postponement, ultimately met defeat in a 2-3 vote (York, Lachman, Kalloch). 

In the same meeting, Councilors voted 4-1 to refuse to allow the police department to use Operation Stonegarden grants for immigration activities.

#26: Directing PD to not Accept Grants w/o Agreement (Post 05/12/25) Councilor Callahan. An Order directing the Police Department to not accept any grant funds from the US Department of Homeland security without written agreement as to the terms of said funding and said written agreement is approved by the City Council. This Order was postponed from the 05/12/2025 Regular Meeting.

Passed as amended. Vote: 4-1 (Kalloch). Amended to read as follows:

ORDER Directing the Police Department not to use Grant Funds for Immigration Activities

WHEREAS, the US Department of Homeland Security (“USDHS”), US Customs and Border Protection invited the Rockland Police Department (“RPD”) to participate in Operation Stonegarden; and

WHEREAS, participation in Operation Stonegarden includes the award of grant funds from the USDHS to support dedicated enforcement actions by the RPD on drug trafficking and local law enforcement challenges that exist here in the city without a direct impact on the Rockland taxpayer; and

WHEREAS, the coastal boundary of Rockland, Maine qualifies the City to participate in Operation Stonegarden; and

WHEREAS, the coast boundary between Rockland, Maine and the Canadian border is largely unpatrolled by law enforcement and provides ample opportunity for vessels to conduct criminal activity from human smuggling organizations and drug trafficking organizations to further their illegal activities; and

WHEREAS, Operation Stonegarden sub-recipients “will not enforce Title 8 (U.S. Immigration Law), nor will they be granted any additional authorities or powers to enforce immigration law.” and

WHEREAS, the RPD does not have the authority to enforce U.S. immigration law

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL AS FOLLOWS:

THAT, the Rockland Police Department shall not participate in Operation Stonegarden if the grant requires the RPD to use the funds for immigration purposes. Vote on amendment: 3-2 (Davis, Callahan).

Immigration and Rockland Police: Council to vote on ordinance June 9

ROCKLAND – “We can’t interfere or interject anything if an ICE agent should come here, doing what their job is, whether or not we accept it,” said Rockland Police Chief Tim Carroll. “Whether we think it’s right or wrong, we still can’t interfere with that. If they ask us questions, we can’t interfere with their investigation regarding immigration. It’s against the law and we [local police officers] can be charged.”

Monday, June 9, Rockland City Council members will vote to accept or deny a proposed ordinance amendment that specifically addresses potential involvement that Rockland Police Officers may have, should a question of immigration occur within Rockland borders.

Yet, standard policy, hierarchy, human interest, rumors, and verbiage complicated a discussion of the topic during the June 2, 2025 Rockland City Council Agenda Setting Meeting.

Not being in law enforcement, Councilor Nichole Kalloch stated an unease for voting in favor of the ordinance as it’s currently written by Councilor Kaitlin Callahan, and which, in its current updated form, has yet to be reviewed by Rockland’s City Attorney.

The draft is 90 percent copied from a New York ordinance and was vetted by the Attorney General, according to Callahan, though she did not say which Attorney General.

Chief Carroll voiced frustration for the 4.5 months over his time that this issue has consumed when the final result, in his opinion, has language that is contradictory at times, vague at times, or is already standard policy for all circumstances, regardless of crime.

Kalloch asked if Callahan had contacted the Coast Guard, “to explain to them that we are going to be rewriting policies on telling them how to do their job.”

In response, Callahan said: “You’ve been sitting in the same room the rest of us have. Maybe you should come join some community meetings with immigrants and asylum seekers here in the community, and listen to the people talk about their fear to leave their home. We’ve already seen, not just across the nation, but across the state of Maine, the detriment that’s been done in communities. This is about fostering community relationships with the Police Dept. as well as protecting the police department from being in a situation that’s going to put a spotlight on them. I think this is exactly what people have been asking for, and I’ve been talking for months that I would be doing this. You don’t have to vote for it, but I have every right to bring it before Council.”

According to Carroll, federal immigration goes by many different names: ICE, DEA, FBI, HEF, Border Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard. Those agencies deal with federal law and federal borders. Local police deal with state law and city ordinances and policies.

Immigration is a hot topic around the country. Locally, rumors have flown about deliberate, pre-planned immigration arrests in Knox County. Carroll put those rumors at bay.

A recent example was a traffic stop by the Sheriff’s Office. The individual was arrested, taken to jail, and it was there that immigration learned of the individual's presence and a detainment was made by Border Patrol, according to Carroll.

“We’re not to ask about immigration status,” said Carroll. “That’s in the regular policy – because we don’t ask about any of those. We’re not supposed to ask about it, but if we find out about it, and we report it, our PD shall hold an individual pursuant to a detainer request from federal immigration authorities only if there is a valid judicial warrant. But how did we even get there to hold that person, unless it was a state crime? But we’re not holding them for Immigration. We don’t do that. That’s not our job. We can’t do that.”

Another example Carroll cited stems from a Park Street situation involving two women and an alleged sex trafficking act. Rockland PD responded for the specific intent of dealing with the sex trafficking accusation. It was only afterward that Border Patrol stepped in for an alleged immigration situation.

And, a rumor that claimed that four people were arrested on the Breakwater by immigration – that never happened, said Carroll.

In response to draft verbiage that stated the Rockland Police Dept. should protect the due process rights of persons in their custody who are subjects of federal immigration enforcement requests, Carroll said: “It should just be ‘RPD should protect the due process rights of persons in their custody.’ That’s in our policy. Why do we need to make a special part of that? We should treat everybody, every individual with due process. Give them their due process of rights. It doesn’t matter what their immigration status is. It should mean every body gets fair due process rights to the best of our ability.”

According to Carroll, this ordinance sprang from another Council agenda item involving a Safer Grant. He had simply wanted to find some money for the growing drug problem that Rockland is inundated with. RPD has other money for training, but little for drug investigations. That grant of $10,000 was offered through Border Patrol. Threats, Risks, Vulnerabilities. For Border Patrol, that’s broken down into drug trafficking, human trafficking, and outlaw gangs.

“Our problem is drugs, and that’s where the money was going to be focused on,” said Carroll. “To do a better effort of trying to rid the city of the drugs that are affecting many of the people here. This was just an effort of trying to put more boots on the ground, if you will, to try to fight the crime specifically targeting drugs.”

Callahan says no. The two ordinances have nothing to do with each other. According to her, community members have been asking for a statement from the City regarding ICE.

“When we invoke the whole power over people, especially people who come from marginalized communities, it is important to have checks and balances. In my role, my professional role, it’s the same thing. We have checks and balances. So I understand you see this as a duplicate, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. And people in the community have asked for a clear clarification around what law enforcement will and will not do in the city of Rockland. We have talked about it at great lengths. There have been many discussions in community meetings that are open to everybody. So, anybody can come and join them. That’s where this came from. This is an attempt to also help foster relationships between the community and the police department.”

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com