Midcoast residents urged the Rockland City Council to scrutinize the local police department’s relationship with federal immigration authorities on Monday night, in light of a sex trafficking raid the Rockland police conducted alongside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The residents also urged the City Council to reaffirm a resolution it first made in 2017 to welcome and assist people from diverse backgrounds.
In December, Rockland police raided Asian Massage based on suspected sex trafficking. The business was previously located on Route 1 in Waldoboro, where police said the telephone number was linked to a New York address known for human trafficking.
Police allegedly interviewed several patrons who said they had received sexual services at the business. A Chinese woman and a patron were present at the time of the raid, and court documents cited by the Midcoast Villager refer to another woman. Rockland Police Chief Timothy Carroll has said that officers conducted surveillance and found that the women rarely left the massage parlor and were not paid for their services.
Carroll said at Monday’s meeting that the two women were released after being held for a “short time” for questioning and have been connected with services meant to help survivors of human trafficking.
Carroll also clarified that while his agency does receive funding from the Department of Homeland Security, it does not have the authority to enforce U.S. immigration law. He said the federal agency, which includes U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was the primary investigator in the Asian Massage case.
“Rockland Police Department will enforce state law and local municipality codes against violators in target areas to help reduce criminal activity. That’s the extent of our involvement with [Customs and Border Patrol]. They are a federal law enforcement agency. We’re a local law enforcement agency,” Carroll said at Monday’s meeting.
However, several Rockland residents, and some from nearby towns, questioned whether the department may have to begin enforcing immigration protocols if the new administration of President Donald Trump requires it. Six speakers made comments on this topic as well as on the city’s 2017 diversity resolution.
Trump had made no such requirement as of Monday.
“I just wondered whether Rockland was thinking about creating a resolution limiting the cooperation between the police department and ICE, for example, resolving that police will not ask a person’s immigration status,” said Kit Harrison, a Camden resident, at the meeting.
Harrison was referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another branch of the Department of Homeland Security.
City Manager Tom Luttrell clarified that the federal funding the police department receives is not for immigration enforcement.
Others asked the council to reaffirm the resolution it passed in 2017 which stated, in part, that the city opposes “any policy on the part of any government or business which scapegoats people, spreads inequality, and intentionally takes rights away from the most vulnerable among us.”
Councilor Kaitlin Callahan said at the meeting that she would like the council to bring back the resolution, not only as a symbolic gesture, but something to build policy off of.
“I have asked Mayor [Penelope] York to schedule a community forum in the next month, so that we can talk about, as a community and as a council, how we can take the diversity resolve of 2017 and really think about how we’re creating policy, and think about how we can create policy through that lens and upholding those values that our community worked for and put together,” Callahan said.
