Retiree radicalism: Behind the scenes with Maine's anti-ICE activists
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Freedom Is Back In Style
This story was reported in collaboration with the Maine Wire's Jon Fetherston.
Freedom Is Back
In Style
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SCARBOROUGH, MAINE — Geriatric anti-ICE activists gathered at Town Hall on Sept. 14 to discuss doxxing, roadblocks, and Saul Alinsky. Attendees demanded radical action.
A week later, vandals laid spike strips in front of Scarborough's ICE facility. They were placed near splashes of blood-red paint that activists used to deface the parking lot back in July after an agent-involved fatal shooting in nearby Biddeford.
'Are we prioritizing our immigrant neighbors and people of color?'
A sign displayed on town property referred to the incident as a "murder." Maine Democrat Attorney General Aaron Frey is reviewing the incident, according to the state's deadly force statutes.
Clad in red-and-white “STOP ICE” shirts and touting a video endorsement from Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), the Indivisible Team of Southern Maine at the Town Hall set about building "working groups," which were, in practice, a Byzantine bureaucracy of Baby Boomers.
At every new idea presented, one of the organizers promptly suggested another working group or committee be formed. This went on until the committee count rivaled the number of actual participants.
Town Councilor Jonathan Anderson (D) and state Rep. Sophia Warren (D) both delivered remarks. Anderson conjured up various hypothetical technicalities by which the ICE facility could be kicked out of town, and Warren praised the crowd for their daily protests. Both eventually ended up stumping for Troy Jackson's U.S. Senate campaign, despite a vocal minority of the gathered protest-hobbyists slamming electoral politics throughout the night.
“Are we prioritizing our immigrant neighbors and people of color?" Warren asked the crowd to approving murmurs.
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Benjamin Roberts/Blaze Media
After the speeches, a masked organizer donning an "86 47" hat — a message that some have interpreted as a call to violence against President Donald Trump — addressed the room. Introducing himself as Rich Nowak, he launched into an impassioned appeal for volunteers to gather information on individual agents.
"We get pictures of who's working down there, we get license plate pictures, we get pictures of the people themselves," said Nowak. "We want to know all that information."
"Why do I wear a mask all the time?" Nowak asked rhetorically. "They knew my name, and they knew where I lived. So I thought it best that I at least keep my face covered."
Another attendee interjected to suggest blockading ICE vehicles in the road in order to forcibly search them. The organizers nodded solemnly but offered neither condemnation nor approval.
Nowak later told Blaze News and the Maine Wire that there was no contradiction between doxxing ICE agents and protecting his own identity. He told attendees the full name and contact information of the ICE facility's landlord shortly before the meeting ended.
At a protest just days later, Nowak's masked companion assiduously and seemingly illegally taped over his front and rear license plates before pulling into traffic with both still covered.
Benjamin Roberts/Blaze Media
Nowak isn't just some lone loon. He is part of the Indivisible Team of Southern Maine, itself a branch of the national nonprofit Indivisible. Maine is home to 29 chapters, including Indivisible Scarborough, which organizes the daily "Quiet Resistance" watch outside the ICE facility alongside ITSME.
Indivisible uses ICE-leased buildings as pressure points, inundating them with doxxing efforts, loudspeaker harassment, and veiled threats.
Unfortunately for ITSME, the federal government has already signed a 15-year lease with the property owner. The township may amend zoning laws to prevent lease renewal, but many activists are calling for spot zoning — whereby the law applies selectively to certain parcels of land and not others — which may be illegal.
Anderson previously told the Portland Press Herald that the municipality had "no mechanism" by which it could evict a federal tenant.
All activists can do is make themselves "enough of a pain in the neck that they [ICE] move somewhere else," according to one protester.
It's not just the agency that ITSME regulars want to run out of town, but the agents themselves. Many believe ICE agents live in the facility.
Blaze News was invited to enter the building and speak with ICE agents to investigate this rumor.
An agent greeted Blaze News at the door on Friday in a "No Kings, No Tyrants, No Fascists, No Nazis" hat.
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Benjamin Roberts/Blaze Media
The agent explained that he wore it to bother the protesters across the street. He later threw on a "Hope Not Hate" hoodie to return the lawn chairs that ICE previously allowed protesters to store at the building.
That arrangement came to an end the day of Blaze News' visit. Spike strips had been laid around the property that morning, jeopardizing the safety of agents and detainees alike, according to both ICE and the protesters.
Some protesters had also tried their luck at the blockade-and-search operation previously floated at the town hall meeting.
Activists continued photographing agents' and contractors' license plates while speaking to Blaze News. Eventually, the younger among them said they did not support deportation under any circumstances, including for migrants involved in violent crimes and "child rape," because they would hurt people in their countries of origin.
A woman in a "Retired: The ability to do what I want, when I want" shirt looked on.
Another group was camped out in front of a local donut shop. Nowak and his masked companion were leading this crew.
Jon Fetherston of the Maine Wire stepped away from his car to interview rally-goers, some of whom promptly cursed at him. He returned to find his rear tire slashed. A local Firestone auto store confirmed that the tire was sliced by a knife or comparable implement.
The vandalism was nothing new for the Maine Wire's senior reporter.
While covering the same anti-ICE groups after the Biddeford shooting, Fetherston was struck in the head with a skateboard by a rally-goer. Another protester punctured all four of his tires with a screwdriver.
Scarborough's anti-ICE movement is aged. It's beset by the distinctly leftist tendency to bureaucratization. But despite its comic exterior, it does have teeth.
Self-described "children of the '60s" are willing to assault journalists, destroy property, and menace law enforcement officers to get their way. Picturesque New England towns may not last long if they do.
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I am just an average American. My teen years were in the late 70s and I participated in all that that decade offered. Started working young, too young. Then I joined the Army before I graduated High School. I spent 25 years in, mostly in Infantry units. Since then I've worked in information technology positions all at small family owned companies. At this rate I'll never be a tech millionaire. When I was young I rode horses as much as I could. I do believe I should have been a cowboy. I'm getting in the saddle again by taking riding lessons and see where it goes.
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