Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained yet another Cumberland County, Maine, corrections officer.
Dannick Massamba-Bankela, who was detained on Tuesday, is the fifth noncitizen Cumberland County corrections officer detained by ICE since April 2025, highlighting a controversial hiring pattern in the jurisdiction. Previous arrests generated tension between Sheriff Kevin Joyce and the ICE office in Scarborough, Maine.
‘Illegal aliens have no place in our communities, especially in positions of law enforcement.’
Massamba-Bankela, who migrated from the Republic of the Congo, was ordered to report to Scarborough’s ICE processing facility on September 19. Protesters, who gather daily across the street from the ICE building, showered the detainee with support.
“It’s not his fault that the U.S. government delays forever in scheduling these asylum interviews,” Massamba-Bankela’s lawyer, Christina Corbaci, told Maine Public. “So what is a person supposed to do? He’s putting down ties. He’s moving forward with his life. He’s integrating into the community exactly like we ask immigrants to do, fully.”
As of Monday, Massamba-Bankela is being held at Wyatt Detention Center in Rhode Island, according to ICE’s detainee locator. The Congolese national was previously held at Massachusetts’ Plymouth County Correctional Facility, according to the Maine Wire.
The five detained corrections officers in Cumberland County hailed either from the Congo or Angola. Some entered the U.S. on tourist or student visas before claiming asylum. At least one, Angolan national Emanuel Ludovic Mbuangi Landila, illegally entered the country via the southern border in 2019, the Bangor Daily News reported, citing the Department of Homeland Security.
Sheriff Joyce claimed that the four officers detained prior to Massamba-Bankela displayed work authorization sufficient for their employment with Cumberland County. Massamba-Bankela’s lawyer told Maine Public that her client also possessed valid work authorization.
Work authorization does not override a visa overstay or legalize an alien’s presence in the country, according to ICE.
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The ICE facility in Scarborough is not a detention center. At least two of the affected corrections officers were processed by agents there and either transferred to permanent custody elsewhere or, in the case of illegal entrant Landila, released on bond.
Landila was detained on January 21, released on bond in February, and ultimately returned to his training program by April, according to the Portland Press Herald. He remains subject to removal pending a final asylum decision.
All five of the detained men were hired by Democrat Sheriff Kevin Joyce, who first took office in 2010. He is running for re-election.
“I guess if you’re not the card-carrying, you know, U.S. citizen, then you must be illegal. Because that’s what they told me is he’s illegal — and he’s definitely not a criminal,” Joyce said in January after Landila’s arrest. “So what part of him is illegal? I don’t know.”
“This was a show of force, a show of whatever they were trying to do with seven people,” Joyce said.
The Maine Criminal Justice Academy dropped English reading and writing tests as a requirement for certification in 2024, shortly before the county’s spate of noncitizen hiring.
After that requirement was cut, Joyce claimed to have hired over 20 immigrants as corrections officers in just one year.
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Though the county doesn’t sponsor visas, it also doesn’t screen for citizenship or legal status. The job posting states that applicants must be “authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S.,” but doesn’t inquire about green cards, an applicant’s right to remain in the country, or pending asylum/immigration decisions.
The Cumberland County jail faced a severe staffing shortage prior to its noncitizen hiring spree.
“Under President Trump and Secretary [Markwayne] Mullin, ICE is restoring law and order. Illegal aliens have no place in our communities, especially in positions of law enforcement,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Blaze News. “Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App.”
Maine isn’t the only state that allows noncitizens to serve in the prison system. Texas employs about 1,600 foreign nationals in its prison system, according to the Houston Chronicle.
“The United States is offering illegal aliens $3,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right, legal way to live the American dream,” the DHS said. “If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
Cumberland County, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, and Massamba-Bankela’s legal representative did not respond to requests for comment.
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