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Most people detained and processed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Maine are quickly moved out of state, according to a new analysis by an immigrant advocacy group.

After processing at the agency’s facility in Scarborough, the report says, 98% of the individuals detained this year amid the agency’s expanded efforts have been swiftly moved to facilities outside Maine, mostly in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, before commonly being transferred to sites in the South.

Detainees are also spending less time at any given facility, and so far this year, 90% of those processed in Scarborough have been moved within six hours of their initial detention.

The new data, which comes through public records requests to ICE from the Deportation Data Project and was analyzed by the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, underscores long-standing concerns by the attorneys and loved ones of those detained.

Those groups have argued that the agency swiftly moves detainees out of state, and even shifts them several times to several different facilities, making it harder to stay in contact or legally advocate.

ICE significantly grew its operations in Maine this year amid the Trump administration’s push to increase deportations. Immigration agents arrested hundreds during a surge in January, most with no criminal convictions, despite the agency’s claim that it only targets the “worst of the worst.”

In July, an agent in Biddeford fatally shot Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, a 25-year-old father, who didn’t have a criminal history and wasn’t the target of enforcement that day, sparking widespread protest.

The Scarborough facility — ICE’s only one in Maine, since the agency pulled detainees from the Cumberland County Jail following criticism by the sheriff — has been the subject of frequent protest from residents advocating for its closure.

Hunter Cropsey, the programs and engagement manager at the coalition and a co-author of the report, said it was born out of requests from individuals in Scarborough who wanted more data to understand the relationship between the facility and their town.

The data also comes amid reports of a new forthcoming ICE facility in the Penobscot County town of Newport, although details remain scarce.

The report shows 293 detentions at the Scarborough facility between Jan. 1 and Aug. 5 of this year, a significant increase over prior years.

An analysis of data from 2024 to 2026 shows that while most people held at the Scarborough facility used to be held elsewhere in Maine after being processed, that shifted sharply in the last two years. Now, more than half go to Massachusetts as their next location, while 40% go to facilities in New Hampshire.

The most common next stops were in Plymouth, Mass., Dover, New Hampshire and Burlington, Mass. this year.

Later transfers often took detainees far from New England, primarily to Louisiana and Texas, but also to Arizona, Georgia and Ohio. Forty percent of those first processed in Scarborough spent some time in the Gulf states, according to the report.

After being processed in Maine, detainees this year spent time in a total of 30 facilities across 11 states, for an average of just 12.6 days at each site. That’s a significant drop from 2024, when detainees spent an average of 46 days in a given facility.

Cropsey, the co-author, said the movement to those southern states is particularly notable because it’s less likely detainees would be released on bond and, statistically, an applicant’s likelihood of approval for asylum is lower.

But even just a move across the border to New Hampshire can cut off detainees from their support systems and their chances of a good legal defense, he said.

“This accelerated and widespread movement removes Mainers from their communities and support systems, creating severe hurdles for legal representation and family contact,” the report concludes. With planned increases in ICE enforcement and the proposed Newport facility, it says, those patterns are likely to intensify.