{"id":156684,"date":"2025-08-18T21:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/156684\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T21:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:11:10","slug":"maine-police-officer-arrested-by-ice-to-return-to-jamaica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/156684\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine police officer arrested by ICE to return to Jamaica"},"content":{"rendered":"

OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine (AP) \u2014 A Maine police officer arrested<\/a> by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily leave the country, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday.<\/p>\n

ICE arrested Old Orchard Beach Police Department reserve Officer Jon Luke Evans, of Jamaica, on July 25, as part of the agency\u2019s effort to step up immigration enforcement<\/a>. Officials with the town and police department have said federal authorities previously told them Evans was legally authorized to work in the U.S.<\/p>\n

An ICE representative reached by telephone told The Associated Press on Monday that a judge has granted voluntary departure for Evans and that he could leave as soon as that day. The representative did not provide other details about Evans\u2019 case.<\/p>\n

Evans\u2019 arrest touched off a dispute between Old Orchard Beach officials and ICE. Police Chief Elise Chard has said the department was notified by federal officials that Evans was legally permitted to work in the country, and that the town submitted information via the Department of Homeland Security\u2019s E-Verify<\/a> program prior to Evans\u2019 employment. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin then accused the town of \u201creckless reliance\u201d on the department\u2019s E-Verify program.<\/p>\n

E-Verify is an online system that allows employers to check if potential employees can work legally in the U.S.<\/p>\n

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\"Community<\/p>\n

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\"Community<\/p>\n

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The town is aware of reports that Evans plans to leave the country voluntarily, Chard said Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe town reiterates its ongoing commitment to meeting all state and federal laws regarding employment,\u201d Chard said in a statement. \u201cWe will continue to rely on the I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form and the E-Verify database to confirm employment eligibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICE\u2019s detainee lookup website said Monday that Evans was being held at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, Rhode Island. However, a representative for Wyatt said Evans had been transferred to an ICE facility in Burlington, Massachusetts. ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment on the discrepancy. It was unclear if Evans was represented by an attorney, and a message left for him at the detention facility was not returned.<\/p>\n

ICE officials said in July that Evans overstayed his visa and unlawfully attempted to purchase a firearm. WMTW-TV reported<\/a> Monday that Evans\u2019 agreement to a voluntary departure means he will be allowed to leave the U.S. at his own expense to avoid being deported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OLD ORCHARD BEACH, Maine (AP) \u2014 A Maine police officer arrested by immigration authorities has agreed to voluntarily…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":156685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1613,91213,57,76602,409,18155,91212,1612,2936,2741,2739,2735,50,2737,10425,3676,2065,61,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-156684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-central-america","10":"tag-elise-chard","11":"tag-general-news","12":"tag-immigrant-detention","13":"tag-immigration","14":"tag-jamaica","15":"tag-jon-luke-evans","16":"tag-latin-america","17":"tag-law-enforcement","18":"tag-maine","19":"tag-massachusetts","20":"tag-me-state-wire","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-rhode-island","23":"tag-tricia-mclaughlin","24":"tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","25":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","26":"tag-u-s-news","27":"tag-united-states","28":"tag-unitedstates","29":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}