A federal judge is blocking the government — for now — from deporting a Maine resident who says he has been held unlawfully by ICE at the Cumberland County Jail since September.
On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine filed a petition asking a judge to release Eyidi Ambila, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who has been in ICE custody for eight months since completing a sentence for two misdemeanor charges.
On Tuesday, the government said it had already moved Ambila to an ICE facility in Massachusetts, outside the court’s jurisdiction, and had slated him for “imminent removal” to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Ambila has had a final deportation order since 2007 stemming from a felony conviction, but according to court records was not removed because the Congolese government has no record of his birth and has denied him travel documents.
“Mr. Ambila has been here for decades, and the government for decades has not removed him,” said Carol Garvan, legal director of the ACLU of Maine. “And then, just three days after we filed our habeas petition [for Ambila’s release], it has made incredibly quick movement to try to deport him.”
Garvan said as of Tuesday afternoon, the group didn’t know Ambila’s exact location.
“Our understanding is that the government has been told they have to hold off and so he has not left the United States and is still here,” she said.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
