Border Patrol arrested a Lewiston teen and threatened him and his family with immediate deportation amid President Donald Trump's immigration efforts.
The teenager's mother, identified as Lisseth Herrera, said her 17-year-old son, was excited to leave home for his first day of work to help out with expenses. The teen, Jose Adalberto Herrera, was with his uncle when they were pulled over and detained by police.
Lewiston Teen Arrested by Border Patrol
The mother said that her son frantically called her and said that police were hitting his uncle when they pulled them over. She said that a police officer could be heard telling her son to hang up the phone.
Herrera said that the next morning, she got a call from a man who identified himself as an immigration agent. He allegedly told her that they had her son in custody and had no record of him in the immigration system.
The mother was able to record part of the phone call with the supposed immigration agent. The man said that her son was "probably going to be deported to El Salvador." He added that if she wanted to turn herself in, she could be deported along with him, according to the Maine Public.
When she heard this, Herrera became anxious and desperate because she knew there was nothing she could do for her son. Later, immigration lawyer Kira Gagarin, who is assisting the family, said she had already spoken with the Border Patrol following the teenager's arrest.
The lawyer said that she was not made aware of any threat of the son or the family being deported to El Salvador. Gagarin said that the teenager was in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and expects him to be released back to his family soon.
Threat of Immediate Deportation
Gagarin said that it was very "frightening" that the Border Patrol was working on detaining minors when the priority should be deporting criminals, terrorists, and drug dealers. The arrest comes after Border Patrol in Houlton shared that an agent assisted a Maine State Police Trooper on a traffic stop for speeding near Falmouth, the Sun Journal reported.
The situation with the Herrera family comes as President Trump continues to ramp up his administration's efforts related to immigration enforcement. Some of the policies that have been implemented include imposing arrest quotas, pressuring officials to speed up deportations, and encouraging agents to detain more people.
Mellisa Adamson, an attorney with the Oakland-based National Center for Youth Law, said that immigration enforcement agents across the United States are frantically trying to increase arrest numbers. This is what is unnecessarily separating children from their families, as per the Boston Globe.
