A Venezuelan man detained Tuesday during a U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation in Skowhegan that led to the arrest of 17 workers was authorized to work in the country, according to his attorney.
The lawyer wrote in a federal court petition, which has since been withdrawn, that Jose Antonio Colmenares had a valid Employment Authorization Document, which allows asylum seekers to work in the U.S. while waiting for immigration court dates.
Border Patrol has not provided information about the operation, including how many of the people arrested are still in custody. At least one man was ordered released from Border Patrol custody by a federal judge Wednesday, after challenging the constitutionality of his detention.
A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday that the arrests were part of a larger Border Patrol operation that has been ongoing for years and was not related to a recent enhanced operation in the state by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Talia Rothstein, an attorney from Pine Tree Legal Assistance who represents Colmenares, filed a petition in the U.S. District Court of Maine on Thursday, challenging the constitutionality of his arrest.
“I think there was increased attention to immigration enforcement with the recent ICE surge,” Rothstein said in a phone call Friday. “But Border Patrol has been detaining people at rural work sites in Maine well before that recent ICE surge.”
Rothstein declined to comment on the case involving Colmenares.
According to the petition, Colmenares arrived in the U.S. in 2024 after scheduling an appointment at a port of entry through the CBP One mobile phone app, which allowed immigrants hoping to enter the country to schedule appointments at the border instead of crossing illegally. Colmenares was released on parole and given an immigration court date for November 2027.
He also received an Employment Authorization Document from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the petition.
Rothstein withdrew the petition Friday. A judge agreed to lift a no-transfer order after the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine argued Colmenares was no longer alleging his rights were being violated.
Border Patrol agents apprehended 17 workers who were on a work bus early Tuesday morning headed to a greenhouse in Madison. The owner of the bus company told a reporter earlier this week that he provides transportation to employees of Backyard Farms and one of its contractors, the Michigan-based Martinez and Sons.
A spokesperson for Border Patrol said they could not provide further information on Friday. Another spokesperson for the agency said earlier in the week he was waiting for approval to release information about the operation.
Efforts to reach Martinez and Sons on Friday were unsuccessful. Backyard Farms, which owns the site in Madison, said Friday that the company is still investigating the situation.
“We were advised that some contract workers did not arrive to our facility on Tuesday. They are not Backyard Farms employees,” spokesperson Amanda Orr wrote in an email. “As a company, Backyard Farms takes employment compliance seriously.”
Rothstein said in court records that Colmenares moved to Maine and has worked at Backyard Farms with several relatives who had also fled Venezuela.
Colmenares has “no criminal history anywhere in the world,” Rothstein wrote in the petition. “Since his arrival to the United States, he has lived peacefully and has had steady employment.”
Many immigrants who entered the country and were paroled after scheduling appointments through the CBP One app were informed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last year that their parole was being terminated. A lawsuit against the Trump administration for trying to end the parole program is still pending in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts.
Another Venezuelan man arrested during Tuesday’s operation was ordered released by a federal judge after his attorney argued in court records that the government had unlawfully denied her client access to a bond hearing. The man arrived in the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2023.
And a third Venezuelan man, Yorvis Alexander Guedez, is an asylum seeker who has been in the country since 2024, according to a petition filed by an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine on Thursday. That petition was later withdrawn and the ACLU declined Friday to comment.
ACLU attorney Max Brooks wrote in the petition that Guedez was living in the country as an asylum seeker and that laborers like him “work physically demanding eight-hour shifts, five to six days a week.”
“Family members describe him as a hard-working, dedicated, and caring father,” Brooks wrote.
Rothstein, who works for Pine Tree’s Farmworker Unit, said Friday that lawyers are concerned the arrests will discourage workers from seeking help.
“It just means that people are much less willing to come forward about labor exploitation that’s happening,” Rothstein said.
