U.S. Border Patrol agents in Maine have arrested over a dozen illegal aliens from Ecuador in recent weeks as a result of conducting vehicle stops.
On Wednesday, April 23, Houlton Sector Border Patrol agents encountered a vehicle carrying 12 occupants during a traffic stop in Dresden.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokesperson said that 11 of the 12 people in the vehicle were found to be illegal aliens from Ecuador. Those 11 aliens were arrested and transferred to the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be processed for further removal proceedings.
[RELATED: Border Patrol Finds 11 Illegal Aliens in Vehicle in Maine…]
One of the 12 individuals in the vehicle was found to have legal status and was released, according to a CBP spokesperson.
On Tuesday, May 6, about two weeks after the April 23 arrest, Houlton Sector Border Patrol agents in Caribou conducted two vehicle stops which resulted in the apprehension of five Ecuadorian male illegal aliens.
Houlton Sector Border Patrol said in a Thursday post to Facebook that the five illegal aliens have been turned over to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) for further removal proceedings.
U.S. Border Patrol Houlton Sector shared the below video of the arrests:
The Houlton Sector, which covers all of Maine, saw a record number of encounters with illegal border crossers in fiscal year 2024 (FY24), with CBP reporting a total of 344 encounters, up from 300 in FY23, and just over six times the amount of migrant apprehensions in 2021.
In FY25 to date — from October 2024 through March 2025 — CBP has reported 244 migrant encounters in the Houlton Sector. This March saw 72 migrant encounters, the highest monthly total reported in the past three years.
