Mexican arrested for being in U.S. illegally

BANGOR – A Mexican man who worked for a Brewer insulation company was being held Tuesday at Penobscot County Jail after appearing in U.S. District Court on charges of being in the country illegally.

Jose Alfredo Rubio-Olivo, 27, of Veazie, was arrested on Monday near Beddington after he was unable to provide Maine State Police with proper documentation. He is charged with re-entry after being denied admission. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Rubio-Olivo was a passenger in a truck that displayed the name Builder’s Insulation Co., according to court documents. The truck was stopped in Township 30 on Route 9 as part of a routine commercial vehicle inspection operation conducted by the Maine Department of Public Safety.

Previously, he was arrested in October 2002 in Portland for entering the country without inspection. He was deported to Mexico the next month, according to court documents.

Rubio-Olivo, through a translator, allegedly told Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents that he entered the United States about six months ago by walking across the border through the desert near Nogales, Ariz. He also said that he started working for the Brewer firm last October, shortly after he arrived in Maine, according to court documents.

Another Mexican man who worked for the same firm was sentenced on Monday to 54 days in jail or time served. Abel Gonzalez-Perez, 19, of Chiapas, Mexico, was arrested in January in Carrabassett while working at a condominium development at Sugarloaf USA.