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Some Waldo County residents have loudly criticized the recent arrest of two immigrants by U.S. Border Patrol agents after a traffic stop on a rural highway, even as officials have still not released many details about the case.
The arrest happened two weeks ago, on March 13, after a deputy with the Waldo County Sheriff’s Office pulled over a vehicle that was allegedly speeding along Route 220 in Montville and emergency dispatchers reported the driver to Border Patrol.
According to a press release from Sheriff Jason Trundy, a Border Patrol agent eventually arrived at the scene and took two people into custody: a passenger in the vehicle and a relative of the driver who also came to the site of the traffic stop. Trundy did not specify their immigration status, but noted that the Border Patrol agent alleged they were in the country illegally.
Many people in Waldo County and beyond have since expressed anger about the case, criticizing the sheriff’s office for cooperating with immigration officials. They have donated more than $200,000 to an online fundraiser to help with the legal costs of the family affected by the arrests.
The outpouring of support for the family has demonstrated the growing tide of frustration among progressives in Maine with border enforcement efforts that have gotten a boost under the new Trump administration, but that critics say are tearing families apart and shouldn’t be aided by local police. The reaction has also shown that the pushback is not limited to big Maine cities where progressives tend to be more concentrated, but extends into more rural corners of the state, as well.
Authorities have released few other details about the case in Montville. This week, the sheriff’s office released a copy of a citation given to the driver because his ability to operate a vehicle in Maine was allegedly suspended, but it has referred additional questions to Border Patrol.
Border Patrol has not yet responded to requests for more information or shared the names of the people taken into custody.
News of the case has since spread widely, in part due to a TikTok video that has received more than 900,000 views, in which a Waldo County man criticized the arrests and drew attention to the online fundraiser for the family.
In the town of Unity, no one answered the door this week at the home where the driver lives.
Tony Avila, who chairs the Unity Select Board, said Thursday that he was not aware of the case.
“I didn’t even know there was a family here that ran into an issue,” Avila said.
Other Waldo County residents have been vocal about their concerns. Judith Stoodley of Unity said that she contacted the sheriff’s office to express her frustration that the agency had cooperated with federal immigration officials on the case.
Belfast resident Caitlin Hills also called out Trundy for working with federal authorities on an immigration matter. Hills argued that he was not obligated to coordinate with those authorities, and that doing so has divided people in the region.
“It just makes the community very scared, frankly,” Hills said. “It continues to degrade our community.”
Trundy did not respond to requests for comment this week.
In the press release he sent out last week, Trundy said that Border Patrol was alerted about the traffic stop in Montville as a matter of practice, after a dispatcher “received a notice indicating the driver held an illegal immigration status.”
Sheriff’s deputies and other local law enforcement “are unable to enforce federal laws,” Trundy said. “Nor do our personnel have access to any information utilized by federal agencies to identify or verify someone’s immigration status. These are the reasons why a federal agency is notified when we receive an alert regarding someone’s immigration status.”
Trundy acknowledged that “enforcement of federal immigration law is currently under a great deal of political scrutiny and judicial review,” but he said that he’s “committed to ensuring public safety and to enforcing the laws of the State of Maine in a fair and equitable manner.”