Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate against Republican incumbent Susan Collins, has released her first television advertisement focusing on criticism of federal immigration enforcement tactics. The ad uses video of federal agents making arrests and includes lines from Mills’ recent State of the State speech in which she condemned masked federal law enforcement activity and referenced a fatal shooting in Minneapolis.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills released her first television advertisement of the 2026 Senate campaign, making federal immigration enforcement a central theme as she seeks to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The ad, which began airing statewide on Friday, features video of agents detaining people and includes audio from Mills’ State of the State address delivered Tuesday in Augusta. In that speech, Mills criticized a federal crackdown on immigration enforcement, saying the government has “deployed masked law enforcement onto the streets of America, including here in Maine,” and argued it is “stoking fear in our communities” and “killing American citizens in Minnesota.” Maine Public reported the lines from Mills’ address in which she also accused federal authorities of making arrests based on quotas and other factors unrelated to public safety.
Mills’ ad comes amid political fallout in Maine over a recent surge in federal immigration arrests that officials said was dubbed “Catch of the Day.” The operation drew criticism from Democratic elected leaders and some local officials, who said detentions swept up people who had lawful permission to be in the United States and others without criminal records.
On January 29, Collins said the Department of Homeland Security had informed her that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had ended its “enhanced activities” in Maine and that there were “no ongoing or planned large-scale” operations in the state, while normal ICE and Customs and Border Protection work would continue.
The Maine enforcement surge unfolded as national attention focused on Minneapolis following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti’s killing.
Details of Mills’ ad buy, including its cost and exact duration, were not independently confirmed in the publicly available statements reviewed for this report.
