Cumberland County corrections officer arrested by ICE, sheriff confirms

PORTLAND, Maine (WMTW) – Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce confirmed to our media partner WMTW that a corrections officer was recently arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, marking the fourth time ICE has detained a Cumberland County corrections officer or corrections recruit within the past 16 months.

Nilton Ribeiro, who is originally from Angola, was taken into ICE custody on Saturday, Aug. 22, during a targeted enforcement operation, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson.

The DHS spokesperson said Ribeiro first entered the United States on Sept. 8, 2022, and had permission to remain in the country until March 7, 2023.

“Against our nation’s laws, he overstayed his welcome and failed to depart the United States,” the DHS spokesperson said in a statement to our media partner WMTW. “Work authorization or a pending application does NOT confer legal status in the United States.”

Joyce said Ribeiro has worked as a corrections officer at the Cumberland County Jail for three years. According to the sheriff, Ribeiro went through a rigorous hiring process that included a background check, a polygraph test and the completion of a valid I-9 form.

“He has been a very good corrections officer during his tenure at the Cumberland County Jail,” Joyce said in an email to our media partner WMTW.

The DHS spokesperson said Ribeiro will remain in ICE custody pending the outcome of his removal proceedings.

“All of his claims will be heard by an immigration judge, and he will receive due process,” the DHS spokesperson said.

ICE’s online detainee locator system indicated that Ribeiro was still in ICE custody as of Thursday afternoon, but it did not indicate where he was being detained.

The DHS spokesperson also noted that the United States is offering $2,600 and a free flight to all people who are in the country illegally if they choose to self-deport.

ICE has previously detained Cumberland County corrections officers

In April 2025, ICE detained Cumberland County Corrections Officer Gratien Milandou-Wamba.

Immigration authorities said Milandou-Wamba lawfully entered the United States in May 2023 on a nonimmigrant visitor’s visa. Milandou-Wamba’s attorney, Wade McCall, said his client had fled torture and persecution in his home country, the Republic of Congo, and had obtained a work permit and was applying for asylum status when he began working for the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in August 2024.

ICE officials said, however, that Milandou-Wamba violated the terms of his lawful admission to the United States when he failed to leave the country when his visa expired. According to ICE, Milandou-Wamba attempted to unlawfully purchase a gun in September 2024, which is when McCall believed immigration authorities may have picked up on his undocumented status.

“As a result of interactions that he had had with inmates at his job, he had begun to have fear for his safety while he wasn’t at work, and so someone suggested getting a gun,” McCall said. “That’s when he filled out this application, and the application put up some red flags. Then that, together with his visa problems, resulted in his detention.”

Cumberland County Manager Jim Gailey told Maine’s Total Coverage in June 2025 that Milandou-Wamba had proper work documentation and that he was off duty when he was taken into custody. Gailey also confirmed Milandou-Wamba was hired in August 2024 and revealed Milandou-Wamba had left his position with the Sheriff’s Office in May 2025 while he remained in ICE custody.

During ICE’s “Operation Catch of the Day” in January, Cumberland County corrections recruit Emmanuel Landila was arrested by federal agents who had stopped him while he was driving in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood. Cellphone video captured the moments agents moved in, pulled Landila from the car and placed him in a waiting SUV. In the video, Landila can be heard shouting: “I am a corrections officer! I work in Cumberland County!”

After Landila was taken into custody, the federal agents left his car on the side of the road with the lights on and the windows down. The incident infuriated Joyce.

“That’s bush league policing,” Joyce said the day after Landila was detained. “In my world, you wait for a wrecker. You wait for somebody to come pick it up that the individual wants, or you get permission to drive the vehicle into a public parking spot and you lock it up and you give the person their car keys. You don’t leave their personal belongings unsecured along the streets of the city of Portland. It’s not fair to the guy that owns the car. It’s surely not fair to Portland police.”

Joyce said Landila was hired in February 2025 after undergoing a rigorous hiring process. The sheriff also said Landila’s I-9 suggested that he was able to work in the United States until April 2029.

“In this particular case, this is an individual that had permission to be working in the state of Maine. We vetted him,” Joyce said in January. “Every indication we found is that this was a squeaky-clean individual that really hadn’t done anything at all.”

Landila’s family launched a GoFundMe page and raised nearly $20,000 to pay for his legal fees. After Landila spent a month in a Massachusetts jail, an immigration judge released him in March following a bond hearing.

Joyce said Landila returned to Maine in March and was finishing his training at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in April.

In June 2026, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office announced that Corrections Officer Bill Bassikissa Bounguiena was detained by ICE in South Portland.

The Sheriff’s Office said it hired Bassikissa Bounguiena in August 2024 and that he has been a valued member of the team with no discipline issues.

“He has demonstrated dedication to his duties and often works overtime,” the Sheriff’s Office said of Bassikissa Bounguiena in a news release.

The agency said that during the hiring process, Bassikissa Bounguiena successfully completed the same comprehensive background screening and rigorous vetting process that all of its employees undergo.

According to the Sheriff’s Office, Bassikissa Bounguiena had an employment authorization document at the time he was hired that confirmed he can legally work in the United States until 2030.

The Sheriff’s Office said it had no additional information regarding the circumstances that led ICE to detain Bassikissa Bounguiena.

County ended its agreement with ICE

In April 2026, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted 3-1 to end its contract with ICE and stop holding federal immigration detainees at the county jail.

For close to a year, the board had received several requests and public comments from residents pressuring them to end the contract, citing the fear some immigrants in Maine feel due to ICE’s ongoing immigration crackdown.

“We went from zero public comment most meetings during my first year as a commissioner, to 50, 75, 100,” said Commissioner Patricia Smith. “Seeing the public come out in big numbers was a big signal that we have some work to do and we need to listen to our constituents.”

The board’s decision came after Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill that amends Maine law by clarifying that local jails must be available to detain people arrested by law enforcement, unless that person is solely being detained for a civil violation of federal immigration laws. The bill, LD 2058, essentially allows Maine jails more flexibility by allowing them to accept or refuse immigration detainees.