A federal judge in Maine has ordered immigration officials not to transfer three South Portland residents out of state while the district court considers a legal challenge to their detention.
Luis Tamay, Victor Lema, and Flavio Chafla, originally from Ecuador, were arrested last month by Border Patrol and are currently detained in Fort Fairfield, according to their lawyer, Shaan Chatterjee.
Chatterjee said border agents in Maine told him the men were set to be transferred to Texas this week, an increasingly common move for the Department of Homeland Security.
"DHS has been showing a pattern of moving clients to different regions from where their family and attorneys are located," he said, "And hasn't really offered a great justification for that."
Chatterjee said while none of the men currently have legal status, they are all pursuing pathways to citizenship. He said government lawyers have not yet provided specific information about why they were arrested.
He said the government is trying to put the men in what's known as expedited removal process, which would prevent them from being released on bond while their cases are adjudicated, and limit their options to appeal. Chatterjee said that too fits into a nationwide trend.
"This expedited removal statute, which historically has only been applied to individuals just arriving to the United States, is being applied to millions of people that have been in the United States for years," Chatterjee said.
All of the men, he said, have lived in the U.S. for at least four years.
A judge has set a Sept. 12 deadline for the government to submit its argument for why the men should remain in detention.
A Border Patrol spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
