SKOWHEGAN — Roland Joyce was driving his normal bus route Tuesday morning, taking temporary workers from a former motel in Skowhegan to work at the Backyard Farms greenhouses in Madison. 

He pulled out of the driveway onto West Front Street promptly at 5:20 a.m. but made it only a few hundred yards down the road before federal agents in two vehicles pulled out from business driveways in front of the bus and stopped it.

“I started slowing down, and then it was blue lights everywhere,” Joyce said in an interview at Poland’s Garage on Sesame Street later Tuesday. “They were coming from behind me; they were besides me; they were coming out from both sides of me.”

Federal agents — from the U.S. Border Patrol and possibly other agencies — boarded the bus speaking Spanish and ultimately detained all 17 workers on the bus, Joyce said. He said it appeared they were initially targeting one man, as an agent immediately took him into custody upon boarding the bus.

The operation, which appeared well-organized and included numerous agents and a low-flying helicopter, lasted about 40 minutes, Joyce said.

“There was three of them that they definitely took out in cuffs,” Joyce said. “Then, from there they just started going through the rest of the occupants of the bus. And one by one, they were bringing them out.”

Officials have not yet confirmed details of the operation, including where the workers are from, why they were detained and where they are being held.

Ryan Brisette, a regional spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, was not immediately able to provide any information about the operation Tuesday morning, but said he would check with officials at Border Patrol’s Houlton Sector, which covers Maine. 

A staffer at CBP’s main public affairs office in Washington, D.C., also had no information available but said the agency would review an emailed request.

None of those detained were brought to the Somerset County Jail in Madison, according to Chief Deputy Mike Mitchell of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.

Skowhegan police Chief David Bucknam said he was aware that Border Patrol — not U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — was conducting an operation in town Tuesday morning. He referred questions to Border Patrol.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and CBP, came under intense criticism after launching an enforcement surge in Maine dubbed “Operation Catch of the Day” on Jan. 20 that the agency said resulted in more than 200 arrests. The immigration enforcement surge, which officials said targeted “the worst of the worst” criminals, ended after about a week.

Donn Poland, owner of the garage and bus service that was driving the detained workers, said his company has agreements to provide transportation for employees of Backyard Farms in Madison, as well as a Michigan-based contractor, Martinez and Sons, which provides employees for Backyard Farms.

Some employees of both companies live at the former Kyes Motel in Skowhegan, and those without vehicles are bused to Backyard Farms’ facility for work, Poland said.

The Backyard Farms workers come on H-2A visas, which are for temporary agricultural workers, Poland said. They stay for about 10 months, and Martinez and Sons provides other workers on a more interim basis in between the cycles of H-2A workers, he said.

Poland’s had been transporting the detained workers on behalf of Martinez and Sons for about a month and a half, he said. Poland said he has had contracts with Martinez and Sons for about three years and was first connected to the agency through Backyard Farms.

Town tax records list the former motel property’s owner as 137 W. Front Street LLC, with a mailing address at Backyard Farms’ greenhouse on River Road in Madison. Two maintenance workers at the hotel Tuesday morning said they work for Backyard Farms and had heard secondhand about the Border Patrol operation earlier in the day.

A spokesperson for Backyard Farms’ parent company, Mastronardi Produce Ltd. of Kingsville, Ontario, provided only limited information Tuesday.

“We have been advised that some contract workers did not arrive to our facility earlier today,” the company’s vice president of marketing, Geoff Kosar, wrote in an email. “They are not Backyard Farms employees. We are investigating the situation to gather additional information. As a company, Backyard Farms takes employment compliance seriously.”

A phone number listed online for Martinez and Sons rang unanswered and no voicemail box was set up. The email address listed online was not able to receive messages.

The Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said it was aware of Tuesday’s enforcement action, as associated organizations received requests for legal assistance related to it.

“We worry this may indicate the start of a new phase of enhanced enforcement activity in the state that began with the surge in January,” Mufalo Chitam, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “Suddenly, disruptive enforcement actions in communities like Skowhegan leave families, workplaces and communities in crisis.”

Backyard Farms, which grows and distributes tomatoes and lettuce, bought the greenhouses at 131 River Road in Madison in 2017.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor found the company violated federal labor laws by dismissing domestic employees to make room for incoming foreign workers with H-2A visas. As a result of the violations, Backyard Farms was ordered to pay $245,351 in back wages and $92,114 in civil penalties.