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yesterday

ICE Detains Maine Reserve Officer Over Gun Purchase Alert, Department Opens Hiring Probe

Old Orchard Beach Police Department is probing its E-Verify vetting after an ATF firearm alert prompted ICE to detain a Jamaican-born reserve officer subject to removal proceedings.

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FILE - In this Thursday, May 7, 2020 photo, a main drag is quiet in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, just weeks before the summer tourist season starts. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
Community Service Officers from the Old Orchard Beach Police Dept. patrol on bicycles, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Overview

  • An ATF alert on July 25 in Biddeford flagged Jon Luke Evans’s attempted firearm purchase and led ICE to arrest him while he served as a seasonal reserve officer.
  • Evans entered the U.S. legally on September 24, 2023, but overstayed a visa that required his departure by October 1, 2023, placing him in unlawful status.
  • Chief Elise Chard says the department relied on DHS’s E-Verify clearance in May before hiring Evans, and officials have launched an internal review of their hiring and work‐authorization checks.
  • Local police and ICE have issued conflicting accounts about when Evans’s overstay should have been detected and whether federal vetting failed.
  • ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston has confirmed it will continue using ATF purchase alerts to identify unlawfully present individuals in public safety roles and pursue removal.