About 50 demonstrators gathered Sunday in Gorham Village to protest a surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity targeting Maine.

The protest, organized by Heather Robinson of Gorham, drew people from surrounding towns, including Buxton, Limerick, Standish and Westbrook.

Word has circulated in town that ICE agents had been in town and spotted in village locations and on the periphery of the University of Southern Maine.

“They have been circling the campus in white vans,” Robinson, manager-founder of the community Facebook page Gorham Me Scoop, said. These sightings could not be verified.

Local protests, spinoffs from ones in Minnesota fueled by fatal shootings allegedly by hands of federal agents, have reportedly attracted thousands.

“If they can do it in Minnesota, we can do it here,” Gorham native Kathy West, displaying a sign “Hate Won’t Make Us Great,” said at the protest in the temperatures that plummeted during the weekend.

“We have to show them that people in our state don’t like what’s going on,” West said.

A sampling of signs in the Gorham protest read, “We Are All Immigrants,” “Democracy Not Oligarchy,” “No ICE,” “This All Ends When Enough of Us Say No,” and “(expletive) ICE, No Human is Illegal.”

Many vehicles in Gorham waved or honked horns approvingly, while demonstrators did say that a few passers-by hurled names or flipped them off.

Tips of ICE sightings in Gorham have been difficult to verify.

Gorham School Superintendent Heather Perry Jan. 26 did not substantiate chatter that ICE had picked up a Gorham student. “I have checked in with all of my building leaders and at this time we are not aware of any Gorham students being detained by ICE,” Perry said. “At this time, we are also not aware of any ICE agents having been on school properties.”

And Maine School Administrative District 6 (Bonny Eagle) Superintendent Clay Gleason concurred. “To date, SAD 6 has not had any communication or contact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of any kind,” Gleason said in an email.

A Westbrook protest on Jan. 24 drew a large turnout at the downtown intersection of Main and Bridge streets. There has been widespread ICE activity in that town.

In Gorham, Robinson said continued protests are also scheduled for 9 to 10 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 1, and Sunday, Feb. 8, on the public sidewalk near the Village Mall.