Over 200 Protesters Including Bowdoin Students March Maine Street Against ICE Activity

More than 200 people, including Bowdoin College students and Brunswick residents, lined Maine Street near the Town Green in downtown Brunswick Sunday afternoon to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, organizers said. Participants carried signs reading “ICE out” and “Immigrants built America the beautiful” and gathered for speeches, music and a student performance.

The protest was organized by Bowdoin sophomores Libby Riggs and Eva McKone with sponsorship from the Bowdoin Reproductive Justice Coalition, Riggs said. Riggs linked the march to recent enforcement actions, saying, “Especially with some of the recent ICE raids in Maine, such as Operation Catch of the Day…, many of our friends and classmates and peers have been under this threat of [...] and classmates and peers have been under this threat of being detained or targeted in enforcement actions, and I feel like there’s been so much fear across entire communities.” Organizers identified the demonstration as opposition to ICE activity under the Trump administration.

The crowd included faith leaders and local activists. Reverend Dr. Kharma Amos of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick helped organize a singing group that led hymns of resistance, and Bowdoin student Sree Kandhadai performed for the assembled demonstrators. “I’m really, really heartened to see this happening. I’m so glad that it’s beyond just Bowdoin students…. It seems like half the Unitarian Universalist Church is here,” Kandhadai said. “I don’t really think I’ve used my voice in this way [before]…. [It’s] more impactful than I realized.”

Local civic activists joined the student organizers. Mike Plaisted, a member of the Sagadahoc chapter of Indivisible, attended to protest what he described as the Trump presidency’s expansion of executive authority and to raise concerns about federal spending tied to enforcement, citing his experience working for the federal government. Katya Fromuth of the youth-led Franklin Project urged unity against ICE, telling the crowd, “We are here to say ICE is not welcome in Maine. We are here to say families belong together. We are here to say that our tax dollars will not pay for the jailing of United States citizens.” Representatives from the Brunswick delegation were reported among attendees.

Accounts of the event’s exact date show a discrepancy in some secondary reporting; organizers and campus sources place the protest on Sunday afternoon, February 20, 2026. Organizers and town records remain the primary sources to confirm attendance totals, the route of any march, and whether a permit was filed with the Town of Brunswick.

The demonstration comes amid heightened campus and community debate over protest rules and student activism. Bowdoin’s administration revised policies on demonstrations and postering after a multiday encampment in Smith Union in February 2025 that led to eight student suspensions; President Safa Zaki and board chair Scott Perper later faced congressional inquiries related to those disciplinary actions, and a campus committee on postering and demonstrations produced updated guidance that some students, including senior Caleb Packard, characterized as responsive to federal pressure.

Organizers characterized Sunday’s gathering as part of a broader wave of grassroots and faith-based resistance to aggressive immigration enforcement, and participants signaled continued local organizing. The protest highlighted ties between Bowdoin student activists, area faith communities and civic groups as the campus and Brunswick weigh next steps on public demonstrations and community response to enforcement actions.