The owner of a market in Friendship was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday.

Dhavalkumar Patel, who owns and operates Wallace’s Market, is challenging his detention in federal court. He is currently in custody at the Plymouth County Correctional Center in Massachusetts, said his attorney, who contends that his detention is unlawful.

A Massachusetts federal judge recently ordered that immigration agents may not transfer Patel to a different facility without giving the court notice, according to court documents.

His apprehension comes during an apparent increase in ICE activity across Maine, with immigration advocates saying reports of sightings are steadily rising.

Patel’s attorney, Audrey Richardson, said several ICE agents arrived at the Knox County store Saturday afternoon and handcuffed him without warning. She said his apprehension is “another example of ICE acting egregiously and unlawfully.”

Richardson described Patel as a hardworking community member and father of a young child.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed Tuesday that Patel, who is from India, was apprehended by ICE on Saturday.

In a statement, DHS officials accused Patel of illegally entering the country in 2010. He was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol after entering and released from custody months later, “pending the outcome of his removal proceedings,” according to DHS.

Patel then “failed to show up for his immigration hearing and was ordered removed by a Justice Department immigration judge on August 8, 2011,” according to the statement from DHS. The agency says Patel will remain in ICE custody until he is removed from the country.

Patel filed a petition in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, alleging that he is being unlawfully detained.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani filed an emergency order in response to Patel’s petition Saturday that he remain in custody in Massachusetts for at least 72 hours.

Following that decision, U.S. District Judge William Young ruled that ICE may not transfer Patel out of Massachusetts unless the agency gives the court notice, “in order to provide an opportunity for fair and orderly consideration of this matter.”

Patel’s apprehension comes as immigration advocates say they’re seeing a rise in reported ICE activity in Maine. A hotline to report such activity is receiving more and more calls about sightings of immigration agents, according to data from the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition.

This recent ICE activity includes an apprehension in early June, when agents detained a Cumberland County corrections officer in South Portland. County officials accused the federal agency of being untruthful about the man’s criminal history.

About a week later, ICE agents apprehended a man at his home in Lewiston. A federal judge then ordered that he be released from custody and questioned whether his detention was lawful.

Officials from ICE and DHS have repeatedly declined to say whether they are increasing enforcement in Maine, citing the need to keep operations secure. The agencies have also declined to share information about how many people have been detained statewide in the wake of January’s surge of immigration enforcement.

Data from the Deportation Data Project indicated that only a few dozen of the nearly 200 people arrested during the January surge had criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.