U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree says federal officials are prohibiting attorneys from accompanying their clients to routine immigration appointments in Maine.

Pingree, a Democrat representing Maine’s 1st Congressional District, also joined calls from local officials to get a tour of the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement office in Scarborough that opened five years ago amid secrecy.

In a letter Monday to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Pingree said town officials have been denied entry to the office and that such moves risk “deepening mistrust and eroding the very public confidence it requires to operate effectively.”

“Blocking access to legal counsel is incompatible with our values as a nation — as well as DHS’s stated commitments to transparency, accountability and the rule of law,” she said. “I strongly urge you to repeal any policy that would deprive individuals of their constitutional right to due process.”

She further called on federal officials to immediately disclose any written policy that prohibits barring attorneys from its facilities.

Public officials across the country have been showing up at ICE facilities to get eyewitness accounts of the conditions, only to be rebuffed and in some cases arrested. Last Thursday, 11 officials were arrested at an ICE detention facility in New York City. The Trump administration has made aggressive immigration enforcement, detention and deportation a top priority since his inauguration eight months ago.

Sue Roche, executive director of the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, a nonprofit that provides legal assistance to immigrants, said attorneys in Maine have been rebuffed on “multiple occasions over the past months” when trying to join clients at their routine appointments, including clients with active immigration cases.

“In the current environment, with the federal government flagrantly disregarding due process and attempting to indiscriminately deport as many people as they can, having your attorney by your side during any ICE appointment is beyond critical,” Roche said in a written statement.

The Scarborough facility has been cloaked in secrecy since plans were first made public in 2020. Two years later, ICE remained tight-lipped about its operations, though at the time it was listed as a “check-in location,” rather than being used for “enforcement and removal operations.”

ICE was later forced to produce nearly 2,000 pages of records after being sued, but the additional information did not answer basic questions about operations, how many detainees could be held and for how long.

It’s still unclear what the facility is used for and federal officials did not respond to an interview request for this story.

That uncertainty is unacceptable to residents like Louise Secordel, who was alarmed that Scarborough police officers initially cooperated with U.S. Customs and Border Protection this summer after pulling over a van that was subject to statewide alert amid a fatal drowning investigation in Waterford. CBP and ICE are separate agencies within the Department of Homeland Security that perform similar and sometimes overlapping functions.

Scarborough police called border patrol to help with translation before releasing the men just as agents arrived. The federal agents ended up arresting 14 men, including the brother of the drowning victim.

“What began as a sad drowning accident became a questionable detention, aided by our local police resources, of individuals working in our community, with no transparency about what has happened to them since,” Secordel said.

Jonathan Anderson, vice chair of the Scarborough Town Council, said he, too, has been trying to get a tour of the Scarborough facility and open up a dialogue between town leaders and ICE since the June 14 arrests, which took place along the busy Route 1 corridor.

Anderson said he is seeking more information about the activities so he can address constituent concerns and ensure ICE is following local town ordinances.

He also wants to ensure that “it’s a facility that is treating people humanely.”

“This is something I know many people in our community are worried about,” Anderson said. “And we’re just looking for transparency around what’s happening and getting to know our neighbor a little bit better.”