Chellie Pingree

SCARBOROUGH — Protesters gathered outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility here on Friday afternoon to voice dismay over the agency’s practices in Maine and elsewhere.

About 100 people — including U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree — lined Manson Libby Road on the side opposite the building.

Protesters chatted, held signs and flags, and waved as drivers honked their horns. Organizers lined the street with caution tape to designate where demonstrators ought to congregate and to keep them out of the road.

There was no activity at the facility itself, which is open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The entrance to the site was taped off and marked with “private property” signs.

Pingree, D-1st District, complimented demonstrators on their signs and stopped to chat and take pictures with some as the protest formally began around 3:30 p.m.

“Even though the surge has slowed down here in Maine, we still have a lot of activity,” Pingree said.

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“I am so pleased and just want to support all the people who come here to speak out (and) to let people know that it’s not right what’s going on,” she added.

The congresswoman’s stop at the protest followed a Friday morning news conference in which she shared details from her Thursday visit to a Boston-area ICE facility.

Pingree said she has heard that many of the roughly 200 Maine residents arrested by immigration authorities in their recent Maine surge were at least briefly held at the Burlington, Massachusetts, facility.

Friday afternoon’s protest was peaceful, and a bit less agitated than some of the larger demonstrations held in Maine this winter: Demonstrators chanted on occasion but mostly chatted, played music on a speaker and sang. A rendition of “This Land Is Your Land” got many to sing along.

Dozens of drivers honked in solidarity over the course of the affair, including a passing ambulance, which received the loudest thanks from protesters.

However, there were some who shouted at protesters and gave rude hand gestures as they drove by. Some protesters reacted in kind, though most just smiled and waved. A few even responded with, “We love you!”

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Operation Melt ICE, with help from other organizations like Indivisible Team Southern Maine and Sacopee Community Forum, orchestrated the demonstration. In a news release ahead of the protest, the group said its goals were to “bring scrutiny” to the facility’s role in ICE operations and “demand due process,” including allowing attorneys to accompany immigrants being processed there.

A protest with similar aspirations was held in Scarborough in October. While originally planned to be held at the ICE facility, that demonstration was later moved to Town Hall. A simultaneous counterprotest in favor of ICE operations was held on Route 1, near the facility.

The American Legion adjacent to the facility has been criticized by some residents and town officials for allowing federal agents to park their personal vehicles in their lot during last month’s surge in immigration enforcement operations.

However, protesters who spoke with the Press Herald said they are also unhappy with ICE’s practices in general.

Judy Doran, of Eliot, said she is skeptical that ICE has been targeting “the worst of the worst.” That was the agency’s stated aim of the recent operation in Maine, but immigrants with misdemeanors or no criminal records have also been arrested by federal immigration officials.

“I believe in human rights, human dignity, social justice, and I think we have to treat each other a lot better,” she said. “That’s what brings me here.”

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Doran also said she is encouraged by how people across the country appear to be practicing more “active resistance.”

For some, their reason for being there on Friday extended to the state of the union at large.

“I feel like it’s my civic duty to come and protest what’s happening in the country,” said Holly Culloton of Biddeford.

Culloton said she’s been to a number of demonstrations in recent years, and it’s always encouraging to see people “come together” for a common cause. That includes the way many Mainers have reacted to ICE activity in the state, she said.

“I love what’s happening with the support for our immigrant community,” she said. “America would be nothing without immigrants.”