At least 100 people in Maine have been arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since the agency began an enhanced enforcement operation this week, federal officials confirmed Thursday.
That’s out of more than 1,400 people statewide that ICE said it identified as part of “Operation Catch of the Day.”
The Trump administration says it is targeting “the worst of the worst” criminals residing in the U.S. illegally, but state officials and families say that some people with misdemeanors or no criminal records are being picked up too.
Our journalists are actively working to verify who has been detained in the state and learn more about them. Here are the people we know have been held so far:
Biddeford
UNIDENTIFIED RESTAURANT WORKERS
Federal immigration agents arrested three workers at Kobe Japanese Restaurant in Biddeford on Jan. 22, according to a restaurant manager.
The agents arrived shortly before the restaurant’s 11 a.m. opening, requested proof of citizenship from everyone there and did not provide an explanation for the arrests, the manager said.
Around the same time, other agents arrived at the restaurant’s South Portland location and detained three more workers.
Among the six taken were immigrants from China and Latin America, the manager said, declining to name them. All were “legal to work,” she said. It is unclear where they are being held and whether any had a criminal history.
Portland
JUAN SEBASTIAN CARVAJAL-MUNOZ
Juan Sebastian Carvajal-Munoz, a civil engineer from Colombia employed by an engineering consulting company, was detained in downtown Portland on Jan. 22, according to The Maine Monitor.
Witnesses described masked agents in police vests smashing the window of Carvajal-Munoz’s car, pulling him into their vehicle and driving off. His car was left running.
Carvajal-Munoz received a master’s degree from the University of Maine in 2023, and colleagues said he was in the country on a work visa. A background check found no criminal record.
MARCOS DA SILVA
Marcos Da Silva was pulled over on Franklin Street and handcuffed by agents in tactical gear and face coverings on Jan. 20, according to his wife. Da Silva, a contractor, had been followed after picking up a day laborer from a Portland shelter, she said. It is unclear whether the passenger was also detained.
Da Silva, 32, is from Brazil and entered the U.S. as an asylum seeker, his wife said. She filed a petition to sponsor him for a green card in 2024, and their application is still being processed.
He has no criminal history, and a background check through the Maine State Bureau of Identification returned no records.
Da Silva was being held at a facility in Plymouth, Massachusetts, as of Jan. 21.
EMANUEL LUDOVIC MBUANGI LANDILA
Emanuel Ludovic Mbuangi Landila, a Cumberland County corrections officer, was detained Jan. 21 in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood.
A witness described five cars descending upon a driver near Kennedy Park, threatening him with a Taser and taking him into custody around 5 p.m.
Shortly after, the sheriff said he talked with an ICE supervisor who told him the officer was living in the country illegally. Joyce said that the officer’s background check came up “squeaky clean” when he was hired in February 2024 and that his paperwork showed he was allowed to work in the country until April 2029.
McLaughlin identified the man as Landila and said he is from Angola and illegally crossed the southern border in 2019.
MICHELINE NTUMBA
Agents wearing police tactical vests detained Micheline Ntumba, a Portland resident, before 8:30 a.m. on Jan. 21 after she dropped off one of her four children at Portland High School, her 20-year-old daughter told The Maine Monitor.
The daughter said agents followed Ntumba to the parking lot of the family’s apartment near Deering Oaks Park.
Ntumba, who is from Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been in the United States for almost 10 years and has a pending asylum application, her daughter said. A background check found no criminal record.
She was being held at a processing facility in Basile, Louisiana, as of Jan. 23, according to ICE’s online detainee locator system.
Scarborough
YANICK JOAO CARNEIERO
Yanick Joao Carneiro, an asylum seeker from Angola, was at the ICE field office in Scarborough for a routine check-in when agents detained him without a warrant.
Carneiro was brought to Burlington, Massachusetts, on Jan. 20, hours before a judge ordered that ICE not move him out of Maine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine.
Carneiro had applied for asylum after arriving in the United States in 2023, according to his petition. He has a wife and two children, who are both U.S. citizens, in Maine.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRECTIONS OFFICER
A York County Jail corrections officer was arrested by ICE outside a scheduled immigration appointment in Scarborough, York County Sheriff William King said on Jan. 23.
The officer, whom King declined to name, had passed a criminal background check and federal verification before being hired.
He was in custody at a Plymouth, Massachusetts, facility as of Jan. 23.
Westbrook
JEAN-PIERRE OBIANG
Eighteen-year-old Jean-Pierre Obiang was detained after a minor car crash near the Market Basket parking lot in Westbrook on Jan. 20.
Obiang is a student at the University of Southern Maine, where he is studying accounting. The family are asylum seekers from Gabon and have been living in Westbrook for three years, his mother said.
A criminal background check on Obiang showed no offenses in Maine.
The Department of Homeland Security reported that ICE has arrested the following people in Maine as part of “Operation Catch of the Day.” If you have information about them, reach us on Signal at PressHeraldTips.295, email [email protected] or use this form.
Dominic Ali, of Sudan
Ambessa Berhe, of Ethiopia
Elmara Correia, of Angola
Dany Lopez-Cortez, of Guatemala
Additionally, 13 people arrested in Maine appear on the department’s “Worst of the Worst” website, which does not include dates. Some may have been arrested before the enforcement operation began on Jan. 20.
Fernandez Agusto Alcantara-Aguero, of the Dominican Republic, arrested in Alfred
Charlene Vermaak, of South Africa, arrested in Alfred
Irvin Zephurin, of St. Lucia, arrested in Biddeford
Charles Ali, of Sudan, arrested in Easton
Ali Ali, of Somalia, arrested in Lewiston
Diorerys De La Rosa Castillo, of the Dominican Republic, arrested in Machias
Ivan Niyoyitungira, of Burundi, arrested in Portland
Marlene Eliana Santaella, of Argentina, arrested in Portland
Zhangqi Xie, of China, arrested in Portland
Khem Noyphayna, of Laos, arrested in Scarborough
Khang Tan Tran, of Vietnam, arrested in Warren
Darvin Peguero Ruiz, of the Dominican Republic, arrested in Wiscasset
Jhoan Mina Lopez, of Colombia, arrested in Wiscasset