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Judge Orders ICE To Return Two Detained Men from Louisiana to Maine

Photo: 560 WGAN Newsradio


A federal judge has ordered that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement return two men to Maine after they were arrested and flown to Louisiana.

The judge determined that the men are entitled to bond hearings, and said it would raise “grave concerns” over their rights to have a lawyer if they remained 1,600 miles away from Portland.

The two men — Selvin Isaias Situj Garcia and Elder Benjamin Ortiz Sintuj — were arrested Jan. 15 at a construction site in Bethel.

The judge, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock, said there’s no suggestion either man has a past criminal history in the United States, or that criminal charges are pending against them.

The men had been transferred to Louisiana before the judge had initially ordered that they not be removed from Maine.

The judge said allowing them to now stay in Louisiana would encourage immigration enforcement to transfer future detainees out of state after the court ordered that they remain in the state.

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