An attempted firearms purchase led to the arrest of a Jamaican citizen who the town of Old Orchard Beach had hired as a police officer, FOX News reported on Monday afternoon. Jon Luke Evans entered the U.S. legally in September 2023, but overstayed his visa, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) stated. He was due to return top Jamaica on October 1 of that year but never boarded his flight home.
The Maine Wire contacted the Old Orchard Beach Police Department seeking information about when Evans was hired, the status of his employment and what type of vetting the department employs in its hiring process, but it did not immediately respond. Evans was reportedly flagged by ICE when he applied tried to buy a gun for use on his job as a policeman, FOX’s Bill Melugin wrote. “The fact that a police department would hire an illegal alien an unlawfully issue him a firearm while on duty would be comic if it weren’t so tragic,” ICE Boston Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a statement
“We have a police department that was knowingly breaking the very law they are charged with enforcing in order to employ an illegal alien. ICE Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing criminal alien threats from our New England communities,” Hyde continued. In April, ICE detained a Cumberland County corrections officer for overstaying his visa. Gratien Milandou-Wamba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, had been working at the jail as a guard, but was in the U.S. illegally.
