ICE detains police officer even after DHS system approved him for work

Washington Post

3 days ago

Federal authorities said they arrested a police officer in Maine last week for overstaying his visa — even as the agency that hired him said the Department of Homeland Security had verified his eligibility to work in the United States weeks earlier.
Jon-Luke Evans, a Jamaican citizen, allegedly overstayed his visa for more than two years by the time Maine's Old Orchard Beach Police Department hired him this year, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. He then tried to buy a firearm for his new job, which ultimately led to his arrest on Friday, ICE said.
The situation is the result of 'the Old Orchard Beach Police Department's reckless reliance on E-Verify to justify arming an illegal alien,' said Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs. E-Verify is a long-standing DHS program for employers to confirm a prospective hire's eligibility to work in the United States.
But the police department says the federal government, which since President Donald Trump's return to office has launched an unusually aggressive immigration crackdown, is in the wrong. They say Evans submitted a work authorization form that was approved by DHS through E-Verify. The police department called Evans's work approval and subsequent arrest, both overseen by DHS, an 'apparent error on the part of the federal government,' suggesting a disconnect between state and federal authorities.
Caught in the middle is Evans, whose immigration status could not be independently confirmed by The Washington Post on Thursday.
McLaughlin said Thursday that using E-Verify 'does not absolve employers of their legal duty to verify documentation authenticity.'
In a statement Monday, the police department said it only learned of Evans' arrest after ICE publicized it in a news release. The police department said it was 'distressed and deeply concerned' that the E-Verify program had not raised any flags before Evans was hired. It plans to probe the case and 'determine what other steps we should take moving forward to ensure our continued compliance.'
As of Thursday, it was unclear whether Evans had retained an attorney. ICE and DHS did not respond to questions from The Post about where Evans is being held, his immigration status and whether they had been alerted to him at other points in the hiring process for the Old Orchard Beach Police Department.
Since the late 1990s, employers have used E-Verify to confirm work eligibility of candidates. But the program has notable flaws, experts said. It can detect fraudulent documents, but a person could submit authentic information that does not legally belong to them and pass through the system. E-Verify also does not divulge information about a person's immigration status to employers.
Evans entered the U.S. legally in September 2023, ICE said in its news release. The agency alleges that he was supposed to leave one week later, but he 'never boarded the flight.' According to a portion of Evans's personnel file with the police department, he studied agricultural education at a Jamaican university, and worked at chain restaurants in South Carolina and in maintenance at multiple Maine properties before applying to become a reserve police officer in April. That role helps fill out summer staffing during the state's summer tourism surge.
Evans was hired on the condition that he passed a background check, drug screening and complete other training requirements. When the police department submitted the documents from Evans into E-Verify, it received a notification that he was legally permitted to work in the U.S. and his employment authorization document would expire in 2030, the department said.
On June 20, Evans was officially appointed as a reserve police officer, according to his personnel file.
But much of the public records are copies of certificates and department policies that Evans signed. They shed little light on what documents he submitted to the police department during his application process, and what files were submitted through E-Verify. After his hiring, ICE alleges that Evans tried to purchase a firearm, which alerted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Patricia Hyde, the director of ICE's field office in Boston, which arrested Evans, accused the Old Orchard Police Department of 'knowingly breaking the very law they are charged with enforcing.'
'The fact that a police department would hire an illegal alien and unlawfully issue him a firearm while on duty would be comical if it weren't so tragic,' Hyde said in the ICE news release.
Verifying the authenticity of documents is not a burden that legally falls on employers, said Juliet Stumpf, a professor of law at Lewis & Clark Law School who focuses on immigration.
When employers use E-Verify and receive a confirmation that a person is authorized to work, then it is presumed that the employer has not knowingly hired an undocumented worker, she said.
'It's one of the reasons that the federal government has touted to employers to use this in the first place is to get that presumption,' Stumpf said.
E-Verify checks documents against existing government databases, such as records of the Social Security Administration. But outdated or inaccurate records elsewhere can prevent E-Verify from identifying issues with submitted materials, Stumpf said.
An answer in Evans's case about what went wrong, if anything, will likely only come from a hearing in immigration court.
'We need to not jump to conclusions,' Stumpf said.