Maine ICE Protesters Sue Noem, Claiming First Amendment Wrongs

Maine-based protesters against the Trump administration’s immigration-enforcement surge sued Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and other DHS officials Monday for allegedly collecting their personal data and threatening them in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights.

The government is using its “significant surveillance capabilities” to collect and track information about observers of immigration-enforcement activities and other protesters, and has used the data to threaten and harass citizens, according to a class action complaint filed Monday in the US District Court for the District of Maine.

The plaintiffs—Maine residents who have engaged in “expressive activity” to protest the administration’s policies—have had their faces scanned and their data added to government watchlists, the complaint said. Government agents have also told them they were “domestic terrorists,” it said.

DHS didn’t respond immediately to a request for comment.

The lawsuit arose from allegedly retaliatory activity undertaken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents against Mainers protesting an immigration sweep in the state that began Jan. 20, the complaint said.

DHS said it had a list of 1,400 people in Maine it intended to arrest as part of the sweep, and succeeded in arresting more than 200 people in the first week, the complaint said. The department’s actions triggered widespread protests and other forms of “constitutionally protected dissent,” it said.

In response, the defendants have “aggressively” sought to suppress this protected activity, including by following protesters to their homes, telling them they know where they live, and threatening them with physical violence, the complaint said.

Government agents have also scanned the faces and license plates of protesters and stored the information in databases and watchlists that “subject the observers to additional scrutiny and harm,” it said.

Injunctive Relief

This conduct by front-line agents is consistent with directives from DHS leadership to deter and criminalize core First Amendment activity, the complaint said.

The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of people who have exercised the right to peacefully observe and record immigration-enforcement operations in Maine and whose biometric or other personal information was collected by DHS as a result of that activity.

The complaint brings claims of violations of First Amendment rights of free speech, assembly, and association, and of First Amendment retaliation.

The plaintiffs are seeking injunctive relief barring the government from retaliating against them or collecting their information based on their exercise of First Amendment rights, an order requiring it to expunge records collected on class members based their protected activity, and attorneys’ fees and costs.

Drummond Woodsum, Protect Democracy Project, and Dunn Isaacson Rhee LLP represent the plaintiffs and the proposed class.

The case is Hilton v. Noem, D. Me., No. 2:26-cv-00092, complaint filed 2/23/26.