For the past week or so, every morning at around 7:15, Jane Field, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister and executive director of the Maine Council of Churches, drives out to a business in the greater Portland area. Once there, she and several of her fellow clergy—usually around two dozen—line up along the street near the exit to the business.
The goal, she said, is to form a visual and spiritual “shield” between the employees leaving their shift—the majority of whom are immigrants—and Department of Homeland Security agents who have surged into the state. The rotating band of clergy has gotten used to staring down agents during what has become a twice-daily ritual, she said, with officials often driving by or sometimes lingering in the parking lot.
“ICE has been there almost every time,” Field said.
