The Franklin County Detention Center in Farmington is seeing a sharp increase this year in the number of people arrested by Border Patrol.
According to online booking logs, Border Patrol agents have placed more than 70 people at the jail so far this year, compared with about 10 during all of 2024.
“I think it’s because of the new administration in Washington and the change in their enforcement of people that are here illegally,” said Hart Daley, the jail administrator, adding that the jail can only accept a few people from Border Patrol at any given time.
“Our staffing at the time and our general population will dictate how many we take,” he said.
Daley said Border Patrol typically books people for a day or two. By law, he said the jail can only hold people for Border Patrol for up to 48 hours, and that the jail is drafting a memorandum of understanding with the agency to clarify the policy.
Daley said Border Patrol reimburses the jail just shy of $100 per day per person, for a total of about $8,000 during the first quarter of 2025.
An administrator at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset said that facility also holds people for Border Patrol on a short-term basis, but did not say how many people in total it’s held so far this year.
Two Bridges Regional Jail and Cumberland County Jail in Portland also hold people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Calls to several other county jails were not immediately returned.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
