PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — A plane carrying 42 people who were allegedly in the U.S. illegally flew out of Presque Isle Airport on Friday, May 23 as part of immigration removal proceedings, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
CBP officials said the flight was destined for Detroit. But according to the Flight Aware tracking website, the plane lifted off the Presque Isle runway at 12:33 p.m., May 23 and landed in Youngstown, Ohio two hours later. CBP officials did not provide further information about how the detainees arrived in Detroit or where they were taken.
The public confirmation of the flight shines light on another way in which federal agencies have apparently stepped up their border and immigration enforcement efforts in Maine and the rest of the country under President Donald Trump.
But it also raises many more questions that U.S. Customs and Border Protection so far has not answered, including whether it has flown previous plane loads of detainees out of Maine, where all of those passengers had been arrested and what was their ultimate destination.
In recent weeks, CBP agents have made multiple immigration-related arrests throughout the state, including in Houlton, Calais, Madawaska, Rangeley, Montville, Brunswick, Caribou and Augusta. Many of these arrests followed minor traffic stops.
And last week, Rangeley Station agents arrested an alleged MS-13 gang member in the U.S. illegally. According to the agency, this is the second confirmed arrest of an MS-13 gang member in the Houlton Sector this fiscal year.
Border patrol agents encountered the El Salvadoran man, who has not been identified, during a vehicle stop and further investigation revealed that he was allegedly wanted by Interpol for aggravated murder in his home country, the agency said.
In April, officials with the agency’s Houlton Sector — which covers all of Maine — said they arrested 113 people in the U.S. illegally from 16 countries, marking the sector’s highest number of arrests in a single month in nearly 24 years.
CBP officials did not respond to specific Bangor Daily News questions about where the 42 detainees were from, where they were arrested and where they are currently detained.
In addition to a record-breaking number of arrests, Maine’s Border Patrol agents are on pace to double the number of encounters — a broader category than arrests — they have with immigrants this year.
During the first half of this fiscal year, which started in October, the Houlton Sector reported 357 encounters. At that rate, the agency could end up with some 700 encounters this year, compared to 344 during all of last year.
In a March media event, patrol agents said that the increase in apprehensions is not the result of more people illegally crossing the border in Maine, but instead from expanded enforcement throughout the state.
The recent increase in Houlton Sector arrests forced Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal operations to transfer 29 people lodged in Portland on May 11 to other parts of the country for further processing, according to CBP.
“The rise in apprehensions over the course of this year reflects the hard work credited to the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol in carrying out national security priorities with inter-agency partners,” said Acting Chief Patrol Agent Christopher Kuhn. “This flight demonstrates those partnerships in action to ensure that individuals illegally present in the U.S. are apprehended and repatriated to their country of origin.”
CBP is now also offering a voluntary process for people in the country illegally to return to their home country or another country that will accept them. Anyone who uses the CBP Home app and confirms their departure through it will receive a $1,000 stipend, the agency said.
Correction: This story has been updated to remove a misidentification of the alleged MS-13 gang member. He has not been identified.
