LIMESTONE, Maine — U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested three men last week for allegedly crossing into Limestone illegally from Canada and another two for allegedly assisting the men.
On Monday, Dec. 23, agent Darrell Foster noticed a vehicle that had stopped in the middle of Blake Road in Limestone, an area where illegal entries have occurred in the past. According to court documents filed through the Department of Homeland Security, there were two individuals in the vehicle at the time of the first sighting.
Agents later observed the vehicle, now carrying five individuals, on the same area of Blake Road. They arrested Rudolpho Macedonio-Secundino, 38, of Corona, New York, and Raul Tequihuaxtle-Chavez, 46, with bringing in and harboring illegal immigrants, a federal misdemeanor charge. Tequihuaxtle-Chavez’s state or country of origin is unknown.
The three passengers in the vehicle — Benito Ponce-Garcia, 55, Maximino Modesto Machorro-Paredes, 70, and Beneranda Teresa Reynosa-Ramos, 29 — told border patrol agents that they had traveled illegally from Mexico to Canada in order to cross into the United States, according to Homeland Security documents.
All men appeared before a judge at the U.S. District Court in Bangor on Thursday, Dec. 26, and are being held in federal jail without bail. Ponce-Garcia has been charged with entry after removal while Machorro-Paredes and Reynosa-Ramos have been charged with improper entry by an alien. All charges are for federal misdemeanors.
Ponce-Garcia previously was deported in 2011 after illegally crossing into the United States from the Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas.
