ACLU calls on Mills to protect Mainers’ civil liberties amid pandemic

The American Civil Liberties Union is calling on Governor Janet Mills’ administration to prioritize protecting the civil rights of all Mainers, including those who are undocumented and those who are involved in the state’s carceral system, while directing the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In a letter to Mills on Thursday, Maine ACLU executive director Alison Beyea asked the administration to declare health centers “immigration enforcement-free zones” and insist that declaration must be “well-publicized and well-enforced.”

Beyea’s request came before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Thursday that the agency does not conduct operations at medical facilities “except under extraordinary circumstances.” 

Maine ACLU executive director Alison Beyea speaking at a press conference at the Maine State House in February. | Dan Neumann, Beacon

“Claims to the contrary are false and create unnecessary fear within communities,” the agency tweeted on Thursday. “People should continue to seek care for medical conditions.”

The Maine ACLU says it is important for the state and advocacy groups to help get the word out so that Maine’s immigrant communities are not too intimidated to seek medical care. 

“Maine’s response must dismantle all barriers to testing and treatment, including the fear within immigrant communities that an individual could be picked up by ICE if they seek medical help,” wrote Beyea. “The zeal of some in our state to root out any possible immigration law violation cannot be allowed to put all our health and safety at risk.”

Beyea also emphasized that people in Maine’s jails and prisons are particularly vulnerable at this time. Calls are mounting nationally and locally, such as in a petition issued by the Southern Maine Democratic Socialists of America to the state and municipal governments, to forgive bail and free low-risk inmates.

“[People in prisons] are housed in close quarters and are often in poor health,” Beyea wrote. “We are particularly concerned as health care in Maine’s prisons and jails has largely been contracted away to private for-profit corporations, which are not necessarily as responsive to public needs as government officials are. It is unlikely those contracts included any specific requirements concerning testing and treatment for COVID-19.”

The Maine ACLU further stressed the importance of using voluntary quarantine measures rather than using “coercive measures” and echoed mounting calls to support people who cannot afford to miss work or who lack paid sick leave, and ensure all Mainers have access to testing and treatment.

“Whenever possible, voluntary isolation measures are preferable to coercive measures,” Beyea wrote. “While the use of a mandatory quarantine may be justified if it is scientifically supported and proportional, the most effective way to get people to stay home is for the government to provide the support necessary to do so.”

Photo: Governor Janet Mills speaking to members of the media on Thursday about the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. | Dan Neumann, Beacon