Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents took the unusual step Thursday of arresting a Somali man in a Portland courthouse, where he was meeting with his attorney, raising concerns from his attorney and immigration advocates.
According to his court-appointed attorney, Tina Nadeau, 28-year-old Abdi Ali was in Cumberland District Court to plead not guilty to a misdemeanor OUI charge. After the hearing he met Nadeau in a side room. That’s where she says a man in civilian garb abruptly entered the room.
She assumed he was her next client of the day.
“And he said, ‘No, we’re here for him,’ and he points at my client and I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and he said ‘Well we’re from ICE and we’re here to get him,’” Nadeau says.
Citing attorney-client privilege, she told the man to wait outside. But Nadeau says when Ali left the room, the man and two others, also in civilian clothing, grabbed him.
“Pushed him pretty hard against the wall, handcuffed him. He wasn’t really struggling but he was trying to say things, and I reminded him try to stay as quiet as possible. And he was led out in handcuffs, and as he was being led out a couple of the court marshals I saw were clapping as though they were happy to see this young man being led out by pretty severe federal agents,” she says.
Nadeau says she’s not sure what Ali’s immigration status is. She says he has lived in Maine for several years and may have been seeking asylum.
In a statement, an ICE spokesman for New England refers to Ali as a “citizen of Somalia” and says Ali had a criminal record that included two misdemeanor convictions for assault. ICE says Ali tried to resist arrest, and that he will be deported.
Portland City Councilor Pious Ali says the courthouse stakeout will send a chilling and counterproductive message to the immigrant community, one that could mar relations with law enforcement. Traditionally, he says, courthouses, places of worship and hospitals have been seen as places of safety for all immigrants, no matter their status.
“It’s going to be difficult for us to have people show up, because people are afraid of going to the courts out of fear that they will be apprehended and deported,” he says.
A spokeswoman for Maine’s court system says that while there is no specific policy on immigration status, court workers do not tip federal agents to pending cases — cases which are, of course, matters of public record.
A spokesman for Portland police, which made the original OUI arrest, says he has no information indicating that local law enforcement provided information about Ali to federal agents.