OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine, USA (AP) — The police chief of a seaside town in Maine has requested an investigation into the arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of one of its officers, stating that the officer was legally permitted to work in the United States.
ICE, known by its acronym in English, arrested Jon Luke Evans, who worked for the Old Orchard Beach Police Department and was born in Jamaica, on July 25. The agency said Evans was unlawfully in the United States and had attempted to purchase a firearm illegally.
ICE indicated in a Monday press release that Evans had entered the United States legally in September 2023 and violated the terms of his admission by overstaying the time allowed by his visa. But the Old Orchard Beach police chief, Elise Chard, said in her own Monday release that the Department of Homeland Security had verified Evans’s authorization to work in the country earlier this year.
The Old Orchard Beach Police Department and ICE officials did not respond to requests for updates on the status of Evans’s case. It was not clear on Tuesday whether he had access to an attorney.
ICE and Chard presented divergent accounts of Evans’s employment by the city. Chard maintained that federal officials had notified the department that Evans possessed legal work authorization in the United States and that his work authorization document was valid through 2030.
She added that the department is “distressed and deeply concerned about this apparent error by the federal government” and will investigate to determine what steps can be taken to ensure the city’s compliance going forward. She also said the department would conduct an internal review of the circumstances surrounding the case.
“The Old Orchard Beach Police Department was never officially informed about Evans’s detention, and the department only learned the details of the matter through a press release issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Chard stated.
ICE stated in a release that Evans admitted to its officers that he had tried to purchase a firearm for his job as a city police officer. That prompted an alert to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which coordinated with ICE to carry out the arrest, the agency said.
Evans was set to depart the United States in October 2023, but he never boarded his outbound flight, the release says.
“We have a police department that was knowingly violating the very law it was supposed to enforce by employing an illegal immigrant,” said Patricia H. Hyde, Acting Director of ICE’s Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations in Boston, in a statement.
Old Orchard Beach is a popular summer vacation destination in Maine, known for its boardwalk, beach, and a downtown amusement park. It is a highly seasonal community that becomes more active in the summer when visitors flood in and demands on police presence rise compared with the slower, colder months.
Maine is one of about a dozen states that allow noncitizen residents to work as police, Chard noted. They are employed on a part-time, seasonal basis and assigned to a variety of duties, including community policing and beach patrol on foot and by bicycle, she added.
Evans passed the physical and medical examinations and a background check, Chard pointed out. He also completed the standard training course before being deployed in service.
