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A judge had just granted bond to an asylum seeker from Maine when the man’s attorney spoke up with one more request: Would the judge instruct immigration agents to return her client’s work permit when he’s released from custody?
Her question was aimed at avoiding a problem that has quietly grown behind the scenes of the federal government’s massive escalation in immigrant detention. In recent months, more and more immigrants have reached out to lawyers and elected officials for help retrieving important personal documents, including work permits and passports, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not return when they were released, according to interviews.
Most who reach out for help appear to get their belongings back. But the pattern has created additional problems for immigrants transitioning back to the community and raised concerns about how the federal government handles the sensitive property of detainees at a time of record-setting detention. It appears to be yet another example of the chaotic nature of the immigration system during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“They are chaotic and undisciplined and they operate in an incredibly incompetent way,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District and frequent Trump critic whose office has dealt with an uptick in requests for help in getting immigrants their documents back.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment. The Bangor Daily News has heard complaints about the problem in interviews and at court hearings since mid-2025. In October, a man who worked as a roofer said he lost his work permit after he was detained by immigration agents in May. Last spring, an immigration lawyer described how ICE didn’t return her client’s wallet after releasing him from custody, and his work permit was missing when he finally got it back.
Last Monday in a federal immigration court in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, the Maine asylum seeker’s lawyer, Irene Freidel of the legal aid group PAIR Project, described the hassle that this policy has created for her clients over the recent months since it’s apparently gone into effect.
She hoped the judge would issue an explicit order on returning the man’s documents because ICE has failed to resolve these issues any other way. The agency “doesn’t engage with us,” she said. In a different case, an immigration judge ordered ICE to return another client’s belongings and ICE still withheld the person’s work permit.
As a result, she has had to get staff for Sen. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, involved in chasing down the documents. She has also pursued them through the separate federal court system in cases in which her clients have also filed lawsuits to challenge their detention.
“It ends up being a huge headache that really interferes with the individual’s ability to return to their life post-release,” Freidel said in court. (She did not respond to a voicemail seeking an interview.)
In Monday’s case, Freidel’s client was an asylum seeker with no criminal record who has a wife and U.S. citizen daughter in Maine. When he gets home, he will need his work permit to return to his job as a welder for a South Portland company that manufactures steel bridges, she said.
The stakes of losing essential documents like a work permit are higher than they used to be. The federal government recently made it more expensive to replace work permits. Pingree’s office said it can take months to get a replacement. Immigrants from certain countries may not be able to get documents replaced at all due to recent shifts in federal policy.
Pingree said her office has also heard from employers that are nervous about welcoming back employees who don’t have copies of their documentation in case the federal government decides to audit them. Her staff have received increasing requests for help about this issue in recent months. At least five have come in since the enforcement surge into Maine last month.
In one case, a man who was detained with his work permit, passport and drivers license was released from detention with a bag that only contained a pair of shoelaces, Christina Starr, who works on constituent issues for the congresswoman.
Pingree said she is working on a bill that would force ICE to return those documents. A spokesperson for Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said his office has fielded requests for help getting documents back. (Spokespeople for Republican Sen. Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine’s 2nd District, did not answer questions about the issue.)
It is unclear why ICE is failing to return immigrants’ belongings. The agency frequently shuffles detainees from detention center to detention center, and Pingree and her staff speculated that the problem may be a function of the agency’s general carelessness for people in its custody.
During last Monday’s hearing, even the judge, Huy Le, seemed wary that ICE would heed his order that the agency return the work permit of the man who worked in Maine as a welder.
“If [ICE] violates that order, then the respondent will at least have documentation of it,” he said.
Bangor Daily News Deputy Investigations Editor Callie Ferguson may be reached at [email protected].
