BANGOR (AP) – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins wants to know why immigration officials dropped off five Spanish-speaking detainees from Central America at a homeless shelter in Portland.

After being arrested in Aroostook County where they were harvesting potatoes, the five were detained for 46 days before being transported by officials of the Department of Homeland Security last weekend to Portland’s Oxford Street Shelter.

The men, from Honduras and El Salvador, were sentenced Nov. 11 in U.S. District Court in Bangor to time served after they waived indictment and pleaded guilty to possessing fake Social Security cards and fake resident alien cards.

The men apparently were taken to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Portland, then released at the shelter.

Typically, illegal workers have been taken to Connecticut for a deportation hearing, and then returned to their native country. “It is unusual for them to be released,” said Jon Haddow, the Bangor lawyer who represented one of the five men.

Collins, who chairs the committee that oversees Homeland Security, said she has asked the department to look into the matter.

“I appreciate that workers at the Oxford Street Shelter did not turn these individuals away during a cold night and allowed them to stay in a warm and safe environment,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “But we need to examine current policy and whether the city should bear the burden of providing shelter for individuals in similar situations.”