Border Patrol agents arrest MS-13 gang member in Portland, Maine, for being illegally present in the U.S.

PORTLAND, Maine — U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents arrested a Salvadoran national in Portland, Maine, on April 15, 2025, who is illegally present in the United States and who is affiliated with Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

USBP’s primary mission is to protect the American people and safeguard our nation’s borders. To do this, USBP agents in the state of Maine are focused on identifying and dismantling criminal and terrorist organizations that threaten our national security, one of those being the MS-13 gang.

While conducting this mission, the Border Patrol’s Anti-Smuggling Unit (ASU), a high performing unit of agents who operate under special assignment to carry out intelligence-driven enforcement operations and investigations, identified the 27-year-old El Salvadoran man as illegally present in the United States.

The ASU agents discovered the subject’s suspected gang affiliation to MS-13, and then identified his location as being in Portland, where Border Patrol agents arrested him.

The El Salvadoran man is being detained pending his removal proceedings and will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO).

MS-13 is a highly dangerous organization that is known for extreme violence and illegal activities in the United States. On February 6, 2025, the State Department, in Public Notice 12672, designated MS-13, amongst other organizations, a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“The U.S. Border Patrol is committed to putting dangerous terrorists and violent gang-members behind bars,” said Juan G. Bernal, Chief of U.S. Border Patrol’s Houlton Sector. “They present a real threat to our nation and to the American people, and as such, they remain a top enforcement priority for the Border Patrol. Members of the MS-13 terrorist organization should know that our agents will find you, we will work to prosecute you, and if you are not legally present in the United States, we will work to remove you from our country.”

Nationwide, the U.S. Border Patrol has apprehended 218 gang affiliated subjects this year, and in Maine, Border Patrol agents have arrested members of both the Tren De Aragua and MS-13 terrorist organizations.

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