Beyond the Violence, More Damage to Maine: “End the ICE Tax” Report Finds Mass Deportation Is Driving Up Costs and Straining Maine’s Economy

MAINE – A new report from America’s Voice, “End the ICE Tax,” details how the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda has not only inflicted violence and senseless death in Maine communities, but is also raising prices, costing jobs, and hollowing out local economies. Maine felt that cost firsthand this year when a federal operation dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day” swept through the state’s largest cities sowing lawlessness, chaos and cruelty. Local reporting is still tallying the damage across all aspects of life in Maine.

Key findings from the report include:

• Nationwide, the 2025 ICE enforcement surge cost an estimated 668,000 jobs, with some estimates suggesting as many as 297,000 of those jobs were held by American-born workers.
• Maine sits in the Northeast, the Census region hit hardest by the enforcement surge: single-family home permits fell 23.5 percent and new-home prices rose 15.4 percent in the Northeast since the surge began—both the steepest declines of any region in the country.
• Nationally, consumer spending drops 6.2 percent and foot traffic falls 2.7 percent at the average business in the weeks after ICE enforcement hits a metro area. Independent, locally-owned businesses take roughly twice the hit as national chains: spending drops 10.85 percent at independent stores versus 5.02 percent at chains, and foot traffic falls 4.09 percent versus 0.69 percent.
• Home health care prices are up 10.7 percent nationally over the past year, with immigrants making up nearly 40 percent of that workforce—a workforce Maine, the nation’s oldest state by median age, will need more than almost anywhere else in the country in the years ahead.

Local reporting and independent analysis affirm these findings on the ground in Maine:

• A 10-day ICE operation in January 2026 cost Maine retailers an estimated $3.4 million in lost revenue, while Biddeford-Saco, Lewiston-Auburn, and Greater Portland together lost an estimated $22 million, according to an analysis by the Maine Center for Economic Policy.
• A state-commissioned report by the Maine Office of New Americans found continued federal enforcement could cost Maine up to 7,000 workers and $3.3 billion in annual economic output. Those same workers currently help sustain nearly 74,000 jobs and $15 billion in economic output statewide.
• An estimated 2,300 people stayed home from work each day in the hardest-hit areas during the operation, according to the same Maine Center for Economic Policy analysis. “Foot traffic to stores and restaurants is down,” Quincy Hentzel and Shanna Cox, presidents of the Portland Regional and Lewiston Auburn Area chambers of commerce, wrote in a joint op-ed.
• Fayere Hussein, who runs Ali Halal Market in Lewiston, said she’d noticed a significant downturn in business due to fear of the ICE surge. Meanwhile, the Mexican restaurant Tres Leches Cake Flor in South Portland was forced to temporarily close its doors during the crackdown.

To read the full “ICE Tax” report, click here.

The report calls the cost of deportation to American consumers the “ICE Tax”: the price families pay every day because the government is choosing ICE-led mass deportation over the economic well-being of everyday Americans. America’s Voice’s new campaign calls on the Trump administration and Congress to reverse course and end the “ICE Tax” by stopping the mass deportations that are squeezing American families in every corner of the country.

Statement from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:

“Maine families are still tallying the human toll and economic cost of Operation Catch of the Day. In a matter of days, Donald Trump and Stephen Miller sent federal agents to sweep through towns and cities in Maine, wrecking lives and upending the economy including millions in lost revenue, shuttered businesses, and workers too afraid to return to their shifts. Mass deportation is ugly in practice: in addition to the violence and lawlessness, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been eliminated nationwide, grocery and health care costs are surging, housing prices climbing, and Maine’s region hit harder than anywhere else. It’s time to end the ICE tax and put Maine families first – not a reckless policy that inflicts punishment and drives up costs, hollowing out Main Street.”

Read about the report in Spanish here.