The Bangor Daily News was the first to report this story. What you’re reading here would likely not be made public without the efforts of professional journalists asking questions, interviewing sources and obtaining documents.
Federal authorities demanded information about those employed at the Cumberland County jail a day after Sheriff Kevin Joyce blasted immigration agents for arresting one of his guards.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement served the county with a subpoena for the employment data on Jan. 23, Joyce told the Bangor Daily News in response to questions on Tuesday. The request sought information about everyone who has worked at the jail since January 2025, the sheriff said. The county complied.
The reason for the subpoena, which has not previously been reported, is not entirely clear. It adds new detail to how ICE responded to the sheriff’s criticism of its tactics during the agency’s surge in Maine last month. Joyce excoriated ICE during a press conference on the third day of the raid, a day after agents arrested an Angolan immigrant who worked as a corrections officer.
Hours later, the agency began removing detainees it had been housing at the jail under a longstanding contract between the federal government and the county. An ICE spokesperson said it could no longer partner with a jail that employed an “illegal alien.”
But the guard, Emanuel Ludovic Mbuangi Landila, passed multiple background checks after applying for the job in late 2024 and had a work permit, Joyce told reporters last month. The sheriff described him as “squeaky clean.”
Landila is one of several immigrants the county jail has hired over the past two years to help fill chronic vacancies and the second to be detained by immigration authorities during President Donald Trump’s second term. A York County corrections officer was also detained by ICE amid its surge in Maine. In a June interview, Joyce said the jail employed about 25 immigrants, all of whom passed background checks and required work permits to get hired.