The Outdated Orchard Seashore Police division has vowed to analyze the arrest of the officer.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) mentioned on July 28 that it arrested a reserve police officer who was illegally current in the USA after he allegedly tried to illegally buy a firearm in Maine.
Officers with ICE Enforcement and Removing Operations Boston, in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), arrested Jon Luke Evans on July 25 in Biddeford after his try to buy the firearm triggered an alert to ATF brokers.
ICE mentioned in an announcement that on the time of his arrest, Evans, a Jamaican nationwide, was employed as a reserve police officer with the Outdated Orchard Seashore Police Division.
It mentioned that Evans admitted to ICE officers that he tried to buy the firearm for his employment.
The company mentioned Evans legally entered the USA in September 2023 on the Miami Worldwide Airport in Florida. It mentioned he violated the phrases of his lawful admission when he overstayed his visa after failing to depart the nation in October 2023.
“Jon Luke Evans not solely broke U.S. immigration legislation, however he additionally illegally tried to buy a firearm. Shockingly, Evans was employed as a neighborhood legislation enforcement officer,” mentioned ICE ERO Boston performing Area Workplace Director Patricia H. Hyde. “The truth that a police division would rent an unlawful alien and unlawfully difficulty him a firearm whereas on responsibility can be comical if it weren’t so tragic.”
Hyde accused the Outdated Orchard Seashore Police Division of “knowingly breaking the very legislation they’re charged with implementing with a view to make use of an unlawful alien.”
“ICE Boston will proceed to prioritize public security by arresting and eradicating felony alien threats from our New England communities,” Hyde mentioned.
In a separate assertion on July 29, Outdated Orchard Seashore Police Chief Elise Chard mentioned that Evans had obtained approval from the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) to work for the division as a summer time reserve officer in Might.
“As a part of the usual hiring course of by the City and the Police Division, Evans was required to finish an I-9 federal immigration and work authorization kind to confirm that he was legally licensed to work in the USA,” Chard mentioned.
Chard mentioned the city reviewed a number of types of identification earlier than hiring Evans, together with photograph identification, and submitted his I-9 kind to DHS’s E-Confirm Program, an internet system that permits employers to verify the eligibility of their staff to work legally in the USA.
DHS then verified that Evans was licensed to work in the USA, in response to Chard.
Evans’s I-9 kind was submitted and accepted by DHS on Might 12, 2025, she mentioned.
“Evans wouldn’t have been permitted to start work as a reserve officer till and except Homeland Safety verified his standing,” Chard mentioned. “The Police Division was notified that Evans was legally permitted to work within the U.S., and his I-766 Employment Authorization Doc was not set to run out till March 2030.”
Maine is amongst a handful of states that permit noncitizen residents to work in legislation enforcement, Chard mentioned.
Reserve officers obtain firearms coaching and are issued a firearm; nevertheless, they don’t seem to be allowed to deliver a Division-issued firearm residence with them and should hand their firearms into the division on the finish of every shift, she mentioned.
“Reserve officers should not requested to, nor are they allowed to buy or carry every other firearms for the efficiency of their duties,” Chard famous.
Chard added that the police division “takes its authorized tasks very critically” and is “distressed and deeply involved about this obvious error on the a part of the federal authorities.”
She mentioned it plans to analyze Evans’s arrest “to find out what different steps we must always take shifting ahead to make sure our continued compliance with all relevant legal guidelines.”
It’s not clear whether or not Evans has authorized illustration.
The Epoch Occasions has contacted a spokesperson for ICE for remark.
Should you discovered this text fascinating, please contemplate supporting conventional journalism
Our first version was printed 25 years in the past from a basement in Atlanta. In the present day, The Epoch Occasions brings fact-based, award-winning journalism to hundreds of thousands of Individuals.
Our journalists have been threatened, arrested, and assaulted, however our dedication to unbiased journalism has by no means wavered. This yr marks our twenty fifth yr of unbiased reporting, free from company and political affect.
That’s why you’re invited to a limited-time introductory supply — simply $1 per week — so you may be part of hundreds of thousands already celebrating unbiased information.
