Federal Judge Blocks ICE from Moving Angolan Asylum Seeker Arrested in Lewiston

A federal judge has temporarily blocked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from removing an Angolan asylum seeker from Maine after federal agents arrested him outside his workplace in Lewiston this week.

Adnero Pinto Sebastiao, an Angolan national with a pending asylum application, was taken into ICE custody Thursday as he returned from lunch to his job at a Lewiston-area bank, according to court filings and published reports.

His attorneys quickly went to federal court, challenging the detention and seeking an emergency order preventing ICE from transferring Sebastiao out of state before a judge could review the circumstances surrounding his arrest.

The court granted that request.

Under the order, the federal government is prohibited from deporting Sebastiao or transferring him to an immigration detention facility outside Maine while the litigation remains pending. The government must also explain the legal basis for holding him.

Sebastiao reportedly entered the United States legally on a tourist visa before applying for asylum. His immigration case remains pending.

The arrest raises an increasingly familiar legal question as the Trump administration expands immigration enforcement across Maine and the rest of New England: whether having a pending asylum claim or other immigration application protects an individual from detention while the underlying case is being decided.

In Sebastiao’s case, at least for now, a federal judge has made sure ICE cannot move him hundreds of miles away while that question is litigated.

The Department of Homeland Security has declined to discuss the specifics of the case, citing pending litigation.

The Lewiston arrest comes amid heightened ICE activity across Maine and growing scrutiny of how and where federal immigration agents are making arrests.

It also bears similarities to another case involving Lewiston resident Eduardo Jose Alves.

Earlier this summer, a federal judge ordered Alves released after ICE transferred him from Maine to a detention facility in Massachusetts despite a court order restricting the government’s ability to move him.

That dispute became another flashpoint between immigration authorities and attorneys challenging the Trump administration’s enforcement tactics.

Immigration advocates have also criticized recent arrests of people who have no reported criminal convictions and who are already navigating the federal immigration system through asylum claims or other applications.

ICE, however, has repeatedly emphasized that being in the country without lawful immigration status can make an individual subject to enforcement regardless of whether that person has a criminal record.

Recent immigration enforcement operations have demonstrated that the administration is not limiting arrests to violent criminals, convicted felons or individuals facing new criminal charges. People with pending immigration proceedings may also find themselves detained while those cases work their way through a system that can take years to resolve.

The Sebastiao case will now test whether ICE had sufficient legal authority to detain him under the specific circumstances of his immigration status and pending asylum claim.

For the moment, the federal court has drawn a clear line: ICE may continue holding Sebastiao while the case is reviewed, but it cannot move him out of Maine or deport him before the court has an opportunity to determine whether his detention is lawful.

The underlying challenge remains pending in federal court.

The Maine Wire will continue following the case as the federal government responds to the court’s order.