The Old Orchard Beach Police department has vowed to investigate the arrest of the officer.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on July 28 that it arrested a reserve police officer who was illegally present in the United States after he allegedly attempted to illegally purchase a firearm in Maine.
Officers with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston, in partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), arrested Jon Luke Evans on July 25 in Biddeford after his attempt to purchase the firearm triggered an alert to ATF agents.
ICE said in a statement that at the time of his arrest, Evans, a Jamaican national, was employed as a reserve police officer with the Old Orchard Beach Police Department.
It said that Evans admitted to ICE officers that he attempted to purchase the firearm for his employment.
The agency said Evans legally entered the United States in September 2023 at the Miami International Airport in Florida. It said he violated the terms of his lawful admission when he overstayed his visa after failing to depart the country in October 2023.
“Jon Luke Evans not only broke U.S. immigration law, but he also illegally attempted to purchase a firearm. Shockingly, Evans was employed as a local law enforcement officer,” said ICE ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde. “The fact that a police department would hire an illegal alien and unlawfully issue him a firearm while on duty would be comical if it weren’t so tragic.”
Hyde accused the Old Orchard Beach Police Department of “knowingly breaking the very law they are charged with enforcing in order to employ an illegal alien.”
“ICE Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing criminal alien threats from our New England communities,” Hyde said.
In a separate statement on July 29, Old Orchard Beach Police Chief Elise Chard said that Evans had received approval from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to work for the department as a summer reserve officer in May.
