Immigrant rights groups say U.S. Border Patrol agents raided a bus and arrested at least 17 farmworkers in Skowhegan early Tuesday morning.
Details of the operation remain scarce, but a spokesperson for Backyard Farms is confirming that several contracted workers did not show up for work as scheduled.
According to a written statement from the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and other groups, the bus was stopped near a housing area for farmworkers. The coalition says witnesses reported agents arrested between 17 and 19 workers who were on the bus headed to Backyard Farms in Madison around 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition Executive Director Mufalo Chitam said her group was alerted by a relative of someone who was detained and by partner groups that work closely with immigrant farmworkers.
She said while Border Patrol arrests in Maine are nothing new, they rarely detain so many people at once.
“They’ve never arrested, you know, even more than 5, 10 people at once,” Chitam said. “So this is the first time such an enforcement has happened.”
A Border Patrol spokesperson did not immediately provide more information on the operation.
Chitam said she worries it could indicate “the start of a new phase of enhanced enforcement activity” in Maine, following the surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests in January.
Skowhegan Police Chief David Bucknam said in an email Tuesday that Border Patrol agents conducted a “sting operation” in the town, and said no ICE agents were involved.
Geoff Kosar, a spokesperson for Backyard Farms, said in an email Tuesday that some contract workers did not arrive at work. Kosar said those workers are not Backyard Farms employees, and that the company is investigating the situation.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.