On June 26, two unmarked vans pulled into the nearby Walmart parking lot in Bangor. Next door, the Kobe Ninja House had just opened its doors. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in bulletproof vests made their way into the establishment, where they cut the phone lines, held employees inside and ultimately arrested three immigrants. Nearly four months after this raid, Kobe reopened, with one former employee coming forward to share what was not released to the public.
“None of us ever thought that they would come into the restaurant,” said Brooke Cooper, a former Kobe employee.
Cooper, a junior at the University of Maine, opened her work group chat the morning of June 26 to see messages about ICE being inside the steakhouse. Cooper drove to Kobe to see the commotion. This is when she saw unmarked vans with some agents still inside.
Cooper recollected her experience when another employee had warned her not to go into the restaurant.
“Once you walk in, they will not let you out…[The ICE agents] were basically holding them hostage in Kobe for hours. It was like two or three hours before they finally got let out.”
When employees outside tried to call the restaurant to find what was going on, the line would not go through.
“They cut the phone line. So when you would call, it would go straight to voicemail,” said Cooper.
Cooper said this is not the only time people were taken from the establishment. She talked about a previous raid the spring before that closed Kobe temporarily.
“They took people, but they’ve taken people from Kobe before. People just didn’t know it. Like, they didn’t come to Kobe, but there was a whole other raid that happened.”
As President Trump’s efforts to increase the deportation of noncitizens proliferate, Kobe is not the only business that has been affected. During the administration’s first seven months, ICE agents reported 40 workplace enforcement actions, causing 1100 arrests. From August 2025, there were 32,364 people booked into ICE detention. 140 of those arrests were in Maine.
LD 1971 and LD 1259 were introduced earlier this year to combat ICE’s impact in Maine. LD 1971, “An Act to Protect Workers in This State by Clarifying the Relationship of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies with Federal Immigration Authorities,” was introduced in May.
While this bill passed in both the House and Senate, when it was given to Gov. Janet Mills, she did not sign it. This means it is currently waiting for the next legislative session. LD 1259 is also waiting for the next legislative session. This bill would prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from entering into contracts with ICE.
Lucas Bent, a University of Maine graduate and co-founder of GreenDex, wrote a letter in support of both of these bills and spoke with the Maine Campus about the status of ICE impact in Maine.
“I wasn’t surprised to see that it [LD 1259] didn’t pass the legislature and I was quite happy to see that LD 1971 did. However, I’m unsurprised but very disappointed that Janet Mills declined to sign the bill, which, as I understand, is the current state of that bill. Sitting on her desk,” said Bent.
The presence of ICE has caused uncertainty for international students and employees, leaving many unsure about how to voice their concerns. Gabriel Veilleux, a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), expressed worry for international students’ freedom of expression. While the organization’s numbers grow, they see little involvement from non-citizens.
“It really feels like international students are afraid of getting involved [with SDS] at this stage, just due to the ramifications. Especially with what we saw happen to Mahmoud Khalil, where he was torn away from his pregnant wife right in front of her. So, I think a lot of people are scared that that’s going to be them,” said Veilleux.
Khalil, an activist and Columbia graduate, was arrested for allegedly omitting green card information, but the ongoing civil case argues that his order of deportation had to do with his advocacy for Palestinian freedom.
Bent also shared concerns for the state of free speech in the U.S., pointing to current ICE activity infringing on 1st Amendment rights.
“I personally know people who feel fearful of speaking out or even of liking posts on social media because of accounts that they’ve heard recently of people being essentially punished or deported to countries they’ve never been to, simply because of their speech,” said Bent.
Mistrust towards ICE is not limited to free speech concerns but expands to local enforcement. Wells, Maine, recently ended their contract with ICE, originally made possible through 287(g) agreements, with the Chief of Police stating the “lines have been blurred” between policing and politics. Aggressive tactics, appearance-based targeting and wrongful detentions have all contributed to a negative public opinion. According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2025, 54% of Americans disapprove of workplace raids.
“It [ICE] strikes fear into the hearts of people who weren’t born here, regardless of reason, and that it seems to me that that’s the intention for the ICE raids and everything else that’s been happening,” said Bent.
Cooper described one tactic used in the Kobe raid as being particularly alarming – the use of the unmarked vans in a different parking lot to “hide”.
The fallout of the raid at Kobe was clouded in uncertainty. No one’s job was promised and Cooper says management did not know what to do or when they would be able to reopen. Originally, Kobe planned to reopen after July 4. The date got further away, with it ultimately being pushed to Oct. 3. Cooper and the other employees filtered into other jobs as ongoing cases brew under the surface of day-to-day operations.
