PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement has highlighted the detention of people it calls some of Maine’s most dangerous criminals during operations this past week, but court records paint a more complicated picture.
Federal officials say more than 100 people have been detained statewide in what ICE calls “Operation Catch of the Day,” a reference to the fishing industry. ICE said in a statement that it was arresting “the worst,” including “child abusers and hostage takers.”
Court records show that some were violent criminals. But they also show other detainees who have unresolved immigration proceedings or who were arrested but never convicted of a crime.
Immigration advocates and local officials say similar concerns have surfaced in other cities where ICE has stepped up enforcement and many of those targeted lack criminal records.
One case highlighted by ICE that involved serious criminal offenses and criminal convictions was that of Dominic Ali, a resident of Sudan. ICE said Ali was convicted of false imprisonment, aggravated assault, assault, obstruction of justice and violation of a protective order.
Court records show Ali was convicted in 2004 of violating a protection order and in 2008 of second-degree assault, false imprisonment and obstructing the reporting of a crime. In the latest case, prosecutors said he threw his girlfriend to the floor of her New Hampshire apartment, kicked her and broke her collarbone.
“His conduct was nothing short of torture,” Judge James Barry said in 2009 before sentencing Ali to five to 10 years in prison.
Ali was later paroled from ICE custody, and in 2013 an immigration judge ordered his removal. No further information was available from the Executive Office for Immigration Review, and it is unclear what happened after that order.
Other cases were more nuanced, such as that of Elmara Correa, an Angola resident who ICE highlighted in its public promotion of the operation, saying that she had “been previously arrested for endangering the welfare of a child.”
Maine court records show someone by that name was charged with violating a law related to learner’s permits for new drivers in 2023, a case that was later dismissed.
Correa filed a petition Wednesday challenging his detention, and a judge issued a temporary emergency order to prevent his transfer from Massachusetts, where he is being held. Her attorney said she entered the United States legally on a student visa about eight years ago and was never subject to expedited removal.
“He was found not guilty, or are we just going to be satisfied that he was caught?” Portland Mayor Mark Dion said during a news conference that he expressed concern that ICE failed to distinguish between arrests and convictions, or to explain whether convictions were served.
Dion also pointed to another person named in the release: Danny Lopez-Cortez, who ICE called a “criminal illegal alien” from Guatemala who was convicted of operating under the influence.
ICE highlighted Lopez-Cortez’s case among a small group of examples that mirrored the types of arrests made during the operation. Dion questioned whether an operating-under-the-influence conviction, a serious crime but commonly seen in Maine, should rise to the level of ICE’s “worst” public narrative.
Boston immigration attorney Caitlin Burgess said her office filed a habeas petition Thursday on behalf of four clients who were detained in Maine and transferred to Massachusetts.
The most serious charge any of them faced was driving without a license, Burgess said, and all had pending immigration court cases or applications.
“Habeas petitions are often the only tool available to stop expedited transfers that undermine access to counsel and disrupt the immigration process,” she said.
Attorney Samantha McHugh said Thursday that five habeas petitions have been filed on behalf of Maine inmates and three more are expected to be filed soon.
“None of these individuals have any criminal record whatsoever,” said McHugh, who is representing a total of eight inmates. “They were just at work, eating lunch, when unmarked vehicles arrived and immigration agents entered the private property to arrest them.”
Federal court records show that immigration cases involving criminal charges can go unsolved or be revisited years later.
Another whose mug shot was included in the material on the “worst” of those detained at Mine was Ambesa Berhe.
Berhe was convicted of possession of cocaine and assault on a police officer in 1996 and possession of cocaine in 2003.
In 2006, a federal appeals court in Boston vacated his removal order and sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals for further consideration.
According to the ruling, Berhe was born in Ethiopia and later taken to Sudan by his adoptive parents. In 1987, when he was about 9 years old, the family was admitted to the United States as refugees.
ICE said the operation targeted 1,400 immigrants in a state of about 1.4 million people, about 4% of whom are foreign-born.
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Associated Press reporter Roderick Ngowi contributed.
