Judge says man held by ICE at Cumberland County Jail to stay in US pending deportation appeal
Jun. 9—A federal judge in Portland has paused a Maine resident's challenge against his immigration detention while the nation's highest immigration court considers his request for protection under the Convention Against Torture as a native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Eyidi Ambila, 44, has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since September when he finished serving a criminal sentence for two misdemeanors. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine filed a habeas corpus petition on Ambila's behalf on May 23, arguing his detention at the Cumberland County Jail was unlawful because the ACLU didn't believe ICE was able to deport him.
An attorney for the Department of Justice recently said they've had the paperwork since March to deport Ambila, who they said was confirmed for a flight to the DRC before a federal judge temporarily halted the removal process on May 27.
"The DRC is ready and willing to accept him," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Lizotte wrote in court records. "It has issued travel documentation to that effect."
Ambila's attorneys have said they are not swayed that those temporary travel papers — which expire in September — were enough.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Nancy Torresen ruled that Ambila's habeas corpus case — and his removal — will remain on pause while the Board of Immigration Appeals considers his larger request for protection under the United Nations' Convention Against Torture, which prevents the U.S. from sending people to places where they would suffer torture.
Ambila is represented in that court by lawyers at the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic through the University of Maine School of Law.
The attorneys said Ambila is entitled to protection "because it is more likely than not that he will be tortured or killed" due to his status as a "deportee from the U.S. with a criminal record who has spent decades outside of the country," according to filings provided by the ACLU.
Ambila was 7 years old when he arrived in the United States with his sister and father, the latter of whom was tortured in the DRC as a result of his political activities, according to the filing. After coming to the United States, Ambila's grandfather was "brutally murdered by poisoning as a result of his political beliefs," the filing states.
He and his family were granted asylum based on political persecution. His lawyers say he has spent most of the last three decades in Maine and Massachusetts.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a final order of removal against Ambila in 2007 for a felony conviction in 2005. Yet he has legally remained in the United States under an order of supervision requiring him to report regularly to ICE. He was also required to apply for the appropriate travel permission from the DRC, the ACLU said, but was always denied because that country hasn't recognized his citizenship.
Ambila's legal team wrote in court records that they were concerned by the temporary status of the embassy travel papers and his lack of citizenship. Coupled with existing conflict in the DRC and his years away, they wrote that Ambila "is likely to face torture by government officials or by violent non-state actors to whom the government turns a blind eye if returned to the DRC."
"Not only has the DRC government failed to prevent torture by non-state actors, the government itself arbitrarily arrests, detains, and tortures vulnerable people and those perceived as a threat to the government," the lawyers said.
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