On a Sunday in southern Maine, a man who asked to be identified simply as Pastor Antonio helps lead a multilingual service at an evangelical church that draws from the local African communities.
About a dozen adults have joined in person, while a handful of kids play in the room next-door. Antonio says that's a fraction of typical turnout, as he believes a resurgent fear of ICE is keeping people away.
"Some of them, when you call, try to reach out to them, they say 'Listen, Pastor, we are scared. We can't come anymore in person. We prefer to stay home,'" he said.
Antonio asked to be identified only by his last name because, like many of his congregants, his immigration case is still in process. And even as he tries to maintain a consistent presence at the pulpit, he's wrestling with his own fears.
"Yes, I have concern," he said. "Because you know, as a parent, I don't know what can happen to me."
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not directly answer a question about how many immigration arrests have been made in Maine over the last couple months.
But the Portland-based Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project said it's seeing an uptick in ICE activity, particularly concentrated in the Lewiston-Auburn area, with agents often detaining people near their homes.
The Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition is also reporting an increase in arrests being called in to its ICE hotline.
And some of the informal networks that formed during the January surge to document ICE activity are reactivating.
"I got out of my car, I approached the situation, I was recording," said a woman named Sara, who said she witnessed - and filmed - several ICE agents making an arrest near downtown Portland on Tuesday.
In the video, an agent tells her to "Back the hell up" as they put a man into an unmarked car.
"I'm a peaceful observer," Sara responds.
"You're observing too close," the agent said. "Back up."
Sara, who asked to be identified only by her first name for fear of being tracked by ICE, said the whole incident was over in minutes. But she tried to get the man's information before the agents drove him away, so that community groups might be able to identify him.
"It looks like they [are] targeting people," said Patrick Mulonda, president of Maine's Congolese community association. "And they wait for you when you get out from your home, or from your work, or you know, they stop you in the middle of the road, and they just take you."
Mulonda said he's getting more frequent calls about community members being detained.
"In three weeks, having nine people arrested, that's a lot," he said. "It's concerning, actually."
Mulonda said the pace of arrests is still far lower than it was in late January, when ICE arrested nearly 200 people in less than a week. And, for now, he says he's not aware of any community members staying home from work or skipping school for fear of going out.
But, Mulonda said, it's once again fueling anxiety within the community, just as it seemed life was returning to normal.
"They feel like something can happen anytime, you know," he said.
Elora Mukherjee, an immigration attorney and professor at Columbia Law School, says that that fear and uncertainty are the result of specific policy choices.
"It is absolutely intentional," Mukherjee said, adding that past presidential administrations — both Democratic and Republican — have set clear priorities for immigration enforcement, generally targeting people with serious criminal records, final deportation orders, or those who'd recently crossed the border.
Now, she said, the Trump administration is hoping to push people to self-deport by casting an ever-wider dragnet.
"Self deportation is a pillar of the Trump administration's mass deportation agenda," Mukherjee said. "To the extent that the administration can terrorize communities and make children and families alike feel unsafe in the United States, they are more likely to leave, and that's what this administration wants."
Meanwhile, as songs of worship fill the room at his church in southern Maine, Pastor Antonio said he's leaning on the belief that this difficult time will, eventually, pass.
"We know it's not easy," he said. "It's just a time that will end one day."
Until then, Antonio said his advice to parishioners is twofold: First, make sure your immigration papers are in order. Then, pray to God for protection.
