NERMEEN SHAIKH: We turn now to Maine, where immigration agents have launched a new enforcement surge, dubbed Operation Catch of the Day. ICE Deputy Assistant Director Patricia Hyde told Fox News they’re targeting some 1,400 people and have arrested at least 50 so far. Reports of ICE activity have been concentrated in the Greater Portland area and the city of Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city. Both cities have significant Somali populations. School officials in Portland report attendance is down overall by as much as 20% in some schools.

This is Portland Mayor Mark Dion speaking Wednesday.

MAYOR MARK DION: Our communities feel anxious and fearful. They see this action as unpredictable and a threat to their families. Collectively and individually, we’ve done everything we can to assure them that we believe in their right to be safe, and we’ve tried to direct resources their way.

AMY GOODMAN: Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused Maine officials of protecting criminals.

For more, we go to Lewiston, where we’re joined by Safiya Khalid, former city councilmember in Lewiston, Maine, who became the first Somali American to hold that role when she was elected in 2019. She now leads an advocacy group called Community Organizing Alliance, which is responding on the ground right now to the ICE surge.

Safiya, welcome to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us. Can you talk about what ICE is calling — I mean, the horror of playing on the seafood industry of Maine — Operation Catch of the Day? What’s happening?

SAFIYA KHALID: Yes. Hi. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me.

You know, the operation name that they are using is really dehumanizing. It is creating fear and intimidation among our communities. Parents have not been able to pick up their kids from school. They have not been able to go grocery shopping. The streets are completely empty. Downtown Lewiston is completely empty, especially our Lisbon Street, which is our main street area. No one is going to the stores. Restaurants are closed, because people are really in fear. And we are urging people to stay home and do not open the door to anyone who they do not know.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Safiya, if you could talk about, for people who aren’t familiar with the demographics of Maine, and in particular Lewiston, who’s being most directly targeted?

SAFIYA KHALID: Yeah. You know, Lewiston is home to a large population of naturalized Somali Americans. And, you know, like Minneapolis and the Twin Cities, he is targeting Somali Americans. But they’re also targeting the larger immigrant population here in the Lewiston urban area and the Greater Portland area.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And have you heard directly from people who have been targeted? Have you been speaking to people on the ground?

SAFIYA KHALID: Yes, we are on the ground helping folks. Yesterday, I was — you know, parents called me to get their kids from school, because one parent, for example, an ICE agent knocked her door. They’re going door to door here in Lewiston, of course, and other parts of the state. But when she opened the door, they said that they were police officers. They didn’t identify themselves as federal agents. They didn’t identify themselves as ICE agents. They also had plain clothes, too. So they’re disguising themselves as regular police officers. And when she opened the door, they immediately arrested her. Right? This is an older Somali woman. They arrested her in front of her kids, didn’t even let her get her jacket or prepare for anything, and put her in a vehicle and drove away.

There’s also another woman who was kidnapped from her home. They knocked the door, as well. She looked through the window. She didn’t see anyone. And then she peeked. She opened the door just a little bit. But they were — they hid. They were hiding somewhere. And they immediately grabbed her and took her away. One woman was brought back to her home, but the other woman, we’re still looking for her.

AMY GOODMAN: A growing number of U.S. citizens have been swept up by ICE as they surge enforcement around the country. I wanted to go to this Somali American from St. Paul, Minnesota, who says she was called a racial slur by an ICE agent before being pushed to the ground. This is Nasra Ahmed, a U.S.-born citizen with no criminal record, detained for two days by ICE.

NASRA AHMED: I am proud to say that I survived ICE. … We were both crying together. We were holding each other tight. And I’ll never forget, like, the fear that we both felt in our hearts that day.

AMY GOODMAN: She still has bandages on her forehead. And I wanted to ask you, Safiya: How do you inform people of their rights, when you get this latest information, the Associated Press reporting ICE is asserting ICE officers have the power to forcibly enter homes without a judicial warrant, in what legal experts have said is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment? What do you tell people to do, as we wrap up?

SAFIYA KHALID: Well, the thing is, if a — you know, if a white woman was shot in the face, none of us are safe, right? We are trying to really just educate people as much as we can. We’re telling people, “Do not open your doors.” And people are scared. They say, “I cannot stay home. I cannot not go to work.” But we’re trying to put some operations and some systems in place. We have partners in Minneapolis and in Chicago and across the country who have seen these attacks in their communities, and they have been tremendous help and a resource to us. So, we’re learning from our comrades across the country. But it is a frightening and a scary time for all of us. For us to urge people to stay home and do not leave your home, it’s a scary time we live in.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us. We are going to continue to cover what’s happening, not only in Lewiston and Portland, Maine, in Minneapolis, in St. Paul and beyond. Safiya Khalid, former Lewiston, Maine, city councilmember, who became the first Somali American to hold that position when she was elected in 2019, now leading an advocacy group called Community Organizing Alliance, speaking to her in Lewiston.

When we come back, we’ll be joined in studio by the internationally acclaimed Iranian author Sahar Delijani about the unprecedented crackdown and reports of massacres in Iran. Stay with us.

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AMY GOODMAN: Emel Mathlouthi, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.