A former Maine police officer who has been detained for more than three weeks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement has agreed to self-deport.
Jon-Luke Evans, a Jamaican national who worked as a reserve police officer in Old Orchard Beach, was taken into custody by ICE agents on July 25 and has been detained ever since.
But court records show an immigration judge has now granted him a voluntary departure, allowing him to leave the country on his own volition as soon as that day.
Under the voluntary departure, Evans is required to use his own money to leave the United States within a specific amount of time.
By doing so, he avoids deportation and could potentially return to the United States sooner and more easily, WMTW reports.
In order to secure a voluntary departure, Evans had to agree that he is not living in the United States legally, waive or withdraw any applications to remain in the country and show that he has the intention and the funds to leave the US.
He had entered the country legally onboard a plane at Miami International Airport in Florida in September 2023 on a weeklong visa, but he never returned home and wound up becoming a cop in the popular resort town, federal officials say.
Evans’ illegal status was ultimately uncovered after the reserve officer attempted to purchase a firearm that he told officials he needed for his job.
Jon-Luke Evans, a Jamaican national who worked as a reserve police officer in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, has agreed to self-deport
He was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on July 25 after attempting to purchase a firearm
Reserve officers do carry firearms but are not allowed to bring them home and must return them to the department after their shifts, according to Old Orchard Police Chief Elise Chard.
Chard clarified that reserve officers aren’t asked to purchase firearms themselves and aren’t allowed to carry other firearms for their duties.
Evans’ arrest touched off a dispute between Old Orchard Beach officials and ICE, with town and police officials arguing they did everything they could to verify that he was legally authorized to work in the United States.
They noted that under the police department’s hiring process, Evans was required to submit an I-9 Form to the Department of Homeland Security’s E-Verify Program.
An I-9 Form is a required document to work in the US. Both citizens and undocumented migrants are required to submit the form before employment.
Chief Chard confirmed that Evans submitted his I-9 Form to Homeland Security and submitted photo identification for his employment with the department.
‘The form was submitted and approved by DHS on May 12, 2025,’ the police chief said.
‘Evans would not have been permitted to begin work as a reserve officer until and unless Homeland Security verified his status.’
The department added that Evans had an approved Employment Authorization Document that wasn’t set to expire until March 2030.
Police and town officials have argued they followed protocol and determined Evans was legally allowed to work in the United States before he was hired
But Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin claimed the police department had a ‘reckless reliance’ on the department’s E-Verify program and should have done more to verify Evans’ status.
‘Usage of E-Verify does not absolve employers of their legal duty to verify documentation authenticity, and all employers should take necessary steps to effectively verify legal employment status,’ she said in a statement. .
‘No illegal alien should ever be provided a firearm or serve in law enforcement, not only is it the law, it’s also basic common sense,’ McLaughlin argued.
Still, she claimed the department’s E-Verify Program is a proven tool that ‘delivers high accuracy in verifying work authorization by cross-checking employee documents against government databases to combat rampant document fraud and protecting American workers.’
Old Orchard Beach officials countered by claiming that the federal government has pushed all employers to rely on E-Verify.
‘Simply stated, had the federal government flagged his information, my town would not have hired Mr. Evans,’ Chard said.
‘Any insinuation that the town and department were derelict in our efforts to verify Mr. Evans’ eligibility to work for the town is false and appears to be an attempt to shift the blame onto a hard-working local law enforcement agency that has done its job.’
Town Manager Diana Asanza also argued that the Old Orchard Beach ‘follows all of the pre-employment guidelines expected of an employer in the state of Maine and in the US.’
She then accused ‘certain federal agencies’ of working ‘to undermine public trust and confidence in municipal law enforcement.’
‘The Department of Homeland Security doubled down on its attack, but in doing so has thrown its own electronic verification system into question,’ Asanza noted.
‘If we should not trust the word of the federal computer system that verifies documents and employment eligibility, what good is that system?’