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The big news this week, of course, was that Democrats swept the country in the midterms in a strong rebuke of President Trump and his policies, flipping seats from Texas to Kentucky to Maine.
For many voters, a top concern was the way in which his administration has carried out immigration enforcement actions, operations that have upended the lives of many immigrant communities since early 2025.
In Houston, Minneapolis, and Biddeford, Maine — where I spent part of election week talking to voters about how ICE surges in Maine impacted their vote — hundreds of residents dedicated their “I voted” stickers to Alex Pretti, Renée Good, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, and others who were killed by ICE.
Since the vote, though, the administration has shown little indication it will change its immigration enforcement tactics in New England and beyond.
Vice President JD Vance said on social media he was “open to the idea that we should change enforcement,” but he made it clear he was firmly against amnesty.
But Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin seemed unmoved by the results of the midterms, taking to social media on Wednesday in the aftermath of the elections. “Deportations will continue,” he posted on X.
Mullin followed up with a thread about the arrests DHS had carried out in recent days, highlighting those with criminal records. “The Trump Administration will never apologize for putting the safety of the American people first by arresting and removing these criminal illegal aliens,” Mullin said.
And on Friday, Trump announced that Stephen Miller, a longtime aide and leader of the administration’s hard-line immigration policies, would become the new White House chief of staff.
And despite the pushback from voters, ICE arrests here in Massachusetts and in some other parts of New England seem to have picked up in recent days, advocates tell me.
On Tuesday, ICE detained a father in Providence who had been surrounded by ICE agents while holding his children in a video that went viral last month, and on Wednesday outside Boston, a young man and recent Chelsea High School grad was detained while heading to work.
In Chelsea, the advocacy group La Colaborativa said the organization spent time this week following ICE vehicles across the city. It also fielded calls from community members affected by ICE arrests, or who were scared to go outside after spotting ICE vehicles.
Gladys Vega, the president and CEO, said part of the city looked like a “ghost town.”
On Thursday afternoon, after Chelsea public schools sent out a note warning families that ICE had been spotted in the area, workers from La Colaborativa went to Chelsea High School to escort students home. La Colaborativa said it was holding many of its activities remotely instead of in person.
“Our young people are a mess,” Vega said.
Some families, Vega said, need help with basic needs such as food and housing. “Because imagine, their breadwinner now is arrested, they don’t have money to pay their rent,” Vega said.
‘It broke my heart’
a Maine voter and Biddeford resident who came to put her “I Voted” sticker on the memorial to the Colombian man shot and killed by an ICE agent in her city. She voted for Democrat Troy Jackson over Republican US Senator Ssusan Collins largely because of the Trump administration's immigration policies.
We want to hear from you — what you are seeing and thinking about immigration enforcement? Our hope is that we can feature your words in this space every week going forward.
- ICE detains Providence father whose children clung to him when agents previously surrounded them in viral video The Boston Globe
- ‘It broke my heart’: ICE enforcement in Maine may have contributed to Collins’s loss The Boston Globe
- ‘He’s glad he’s in Canada.’ Adopted son of Maine state senator held by ICE in NH for two days before release.The Boston Globe
- Voters reject initiative that would have forced Colorado police, prosecutors to work more closely with ICE The Colorado Sun
- Immigration Tactics Motivated Voters, Near and Far From Southern Border The New York Times
- Latinos, motivated by immigration and economic woes, drive Democratic gains in Republican strongholds Reuters
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Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at giulia.mcdnr@globe.com. Follow her @giuliamcdnr.