RANGELEY, Maine — Border Patrol agents arrested 17 men during three separate incidents beginning on Saturday, November 9.
Agents stationed in Rangeley say the men they arrested came from five different countries and were charged with immigration-related offenses.
The 12 Mexican men who agents arrested in Auburn on Saturday were working locally. The men came to the U.S. legally with H2A non-immigrant visas and had been agricultural workers in Texas, but they were supposed to leave in August, according to Jason Owens, Chief Patrol Agent of the Border Patrol in Maine.
On Sunday, Nov. 10, Border Patrol agents arrested two men from Ecuador and one from Honduras in Stratton. Agents say they came to the U.S. illegally, walking across the U.S.-Mexican border. The men told agents they traveled to Maine to work as contractors.
Finally, on Monday, Nov. 11, agents arrested one man from Honduras and one from El Salvador in Turner. The men were working without authorization and had also come to the U.S. illegally by crossing the U.S.-Mexican border, according to Owens.
The 17 men were handed over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).
