On the evening of Tuesday, May 27th shortly before 7pm, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office made a routine stop for a traffic violation. The vehicle they pulled over on Farmington Falls Road was a van with Massachusetts plates.
Inside the van were six occupants and the driver was identified as being from Ecuador. Soon after that point, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) agents arrived at the scene. After CPB’s inquires, the federal agents took all six individuals into custody.
The Franklin County Sheriff on scene issued a warning for the original traffic violation.
The incident comes just before the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee is scheduled to act Wednesday on three bills involving state, county and local law enforcement cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies on enforcing immigration law.
Representative Amburbeen Rana (D-Bangor) and Representative Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland) both have bills in to curb cooperation between all levels of immigration law enforcement. Rep. Rana’s LD 1259 would prohibit local law enforcement from entering into contracts with federal immigration agencies. Rep. Dhalac’s LD 1971 goes further, putting stringent restrictions on any law enforcement involving immigration in the state.
LD 1656 from Representative Mike Soboleski (R-Phillips) would facilitate compliance with federal immigration law by state, county and local law enforcement. It is expected that LD 1659 would also increase cooperation among all levels of law enforcement with regard to immigration.
This developing is a developing story and will be updated.
