Maine LD 2106: An Act to Prohibit the Disclosure of Nonpublic Records without Proper Judicial Review
The following testimony was submitted to Senator Anne Carney, Representative Amy Kuhn, and members of the Committee on Judiciary of the State of Maine on January 27, 2026.
Dear Sen. Carney, Rep. Kuhn and Honorable Members of the Judiciary Committee:
I regret that I am unable to attend the hearing for LD 2106 in person and greatly appreciate the opportunity to provide written testimony in support of the bill.
I am a Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Southern Maine and I speak as an individual at this time and not on behalf of the university. I work with student teachers across 30 school districts. I am also a School Committee Member with Westbrook Public Schools and again speak as an individual and not on behalf of the school committee. This past week has been very difficult with the increase of ICE enforcement in Maine. My neighbors are afraid to leave their homes and many students of color are not at school or the bus stops. One of my students who teaches high school ESL physics said two-thirds of his students were missing from class last week. A friend who works in afterschool care said their program usually has 200 children and they had only 30 last Friday.
At the university, we have requests from students for accommodations to not come to campus because they are afraid. We don’t even hear from the ones who choose not to register and quietly stop attending college. The provost has asked faculty to “be lenient” with attendance given the current situations.
Our teachers and administrators are exhausted from worry and organizing to keep their students safe. Our students are experiencing tremendous disruption to their learning through absence as well as the constant stress of worry.
We need to make daycare, preschools, elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as colleges and universities safe places for students to be and learn.
LD 2106 provides clear guidance that sensitive community spaces should not become sites of immigration enforcement without a valid judicial warrant, and that workers should not be asked to voluntarily facilitate such actions without reasonable justification. This clarity ensures that schools and universities remain places for learning. Our future as a state depends on our students learning today.
For these reasons, I ask you and the members of the Judiciary Committee to vote “ought to pass” on LD 2106. Thank you.