by Beth Brogan and Jake Bleiberg, BDN StaffThursday, April 6th 2017

PORTLAND (BDN) -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Thursday seized a Somali man believed to be an asylum seeker inside a Portland courthouse, after the man pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge, according to his lawyer and court security.

Abdi Ali, 28, was meeting with his attorney at the Cumberland County Superior Court after being arraigned on a drunk driving charge when three ICE agents grabbed him, pushed him against the wall and handcuffed him before walking him out of the court, said lawyer Tina Heather Nadeau, who was advising him on the charge.

“It is very disturbing that someone coming to the courthouse for his scheduled court date and to get legal counsel is being dragged out in handcuffs,” said Nadeau.

Nadeau and the head of the court’s judicial marshals said that they had never heard of immigration agents detaining someone in the Maine courthouse before. The incident appears to signal that the Trump administration’s more aggressive immigration enforcement is being implemented here.

“I’d never seen this in Maine but I guess it’s here now,” said Nadeau, who is not representing Ali in the immigration case.

Shawn Neudauer, public affairs officer for ICE in New England, did not immediately return a phone call Thursday. Ali is being held at the Cumberland County Jail, according to a jail official.

Sgt. Keith Jensen, of the Judicial Marshals, said that ICE agents had come to the courthouse and told him that they would be detaining someone, before taking Ali into custody between 9 and 9:30 a.m.

Nadeau said that she was speaking with Ali in a private room at the courthouse when a man barged into the room and said he needed to talk to Ali. Her client had previously expressed uncertainty about his immigration status, first telling the lawyer that he was a citizen and then amending that to say he was an asylum seeker, Nadeau said.

Nadeau advised her client not to say anything and told the man to leave, but when Ali left the room he was taken into custody by the man and two other men, who all identified themselves as ICE agents, she said.

Asylum seekers typically enter the U.S. legally but may have lost their legal status in the country while the often lengthy process of applying for asylum is pending. Ali’s legal status is not clear from interviews or court documents.

One city councilor sharply criticized ICE on his Facebook page.

“Lurking at courthouses to arrest immigrants, is shortsighted and not the best way to implement immigration laws,” Portland City Councilor Pious Ali said. “Acts like this will negatively affect the relationship between local law enforcement and the immigrant community and not in the best interest of our community and city.”

Mary Ann Lynch, spokeswoman for the State of Maine Judicial Branch, also said that this is the first she is aware of ICE detaining people inside a state courthouse.

“We don’t have a policy right now,” said Lynch. “This is a first-time event for us, so we’ll be looking at the situation.”
In March, five people who arrived for scheduled appointments were arrested at the Lawrence, Mass. office of US Citizenship and Immigration Services by federal immigration authorities, prompting immigrant advocates to criticize a law enforcement operation at a government office, The Boston Globe reported. WBUR reported that three of those arrested were seeking green cards.

In California, the chief justice of the state supreme court criticized ICE agents for using courthouses as “bait,” according to the Washington Post, and said they were “stalking” immigrants “who pose no risk to public safety.”

In response, officials from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security said last week that immigration agents would continue to make arrests at courthouses, CNN reported.

http://wgme.com/news/local/immigrati...ize-somali-man