Federal immigration agents detained the adopted son of a Maine lawmaker for two days this week after New Hampshire police stopped him just 10 miles short of Canada, which had just granted him citizenship.
Jessie Laurel Tepler-Mujambere, 28, set out on Wednesday, shortly after his citizenship paperwork arrived in the mail, according to his adoptive mother, Sen. Denise Tepler, D-Topsham, who took him in as a teenager when his biological father brought him to Maine from Burundi and abandoned him at a shelter. She and her husband, Sheldon Tepler, a lawyer in Lewiston, later adopted him.
Police in Colebrook, New Hampshire, stopped him that afternoon and turned him over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Teplers said. He spent the next two days in custody in different locations across New Hampshire. An agent drove him to a Vermont border station on Friday afternoon.
The case comes as immigration advocates criticize President Donald Trump’s crackdown for sweeping up nonviolent immigrants who are following legal paths to status. In Maine, that has included working asylum seekers who entered the country on visas. The Teplers said their son’s detention accomplished nothing except costing taxpayers money.
“This is ridiculous. The taxpayers paid for his last two nights in a county jail in New Hampshire,” Denise Tepler said in a Friday interview. “They are paying for this transfer to Vermont.”
The family will cover the rest, she said, including hundreds of dollars in fees after his car was towed. An ICE spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions Friday. The Colebrook Police Department did not respond to a message seeking comment.
When Tepler-Mujambere first arrived in the U.S., he unsuccessfully sought legal status through a program for abused and neglected immigrant children, his family said. He then applied for asylum, which allowed him to get a work permit. He earned an associate degree and worked in health care.
Sheldon Tepler was born in a refugee camp in Montreal after his parents fled the Holocaust. When he obtained Canadian citizenship a few years ago, he realized his adopted son could also get it through him.
“The lights went on: This kid can live in Canada,” he said.
Canada approved Tepler-Mujambere’s citizenship on July 22, according to a photo of the certificate his adoptive sister, Maya Tepler, shared with the Bangor Daily News. The official document did not arrive until Wednesday.
By then, his work permit had expired and the federal government had not renewed it. He spent the months of waiting mostly exercising and reading the Bible, Denise Tepler said.
“I gave him a hug and kiss goodbye and he was excited,” she said.
She thought he planned to cross in Jackman. But at 4:37 p.m., he texted her that Colebrook police had arrested him.
Colebrook is about 10 miles south of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection port of entry in Canaan, Vermont, which is typically used by Mainers traveling toward Montreal. Its police department takes part in a federal program that gives local officers some immigration enforcement powers. (Maine lawmakers banned such partnerships last year.)
“I told them I’m waiting on my asylum but I wa[s] heading to Canada and I have documents to show,” he texted his family, according to a screenshot.
He spent the next two days moving between the Strafford County Jail in Dover, New Hampshire, and an ICE field office in Manchester. Staff for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, helped the family keep track of his case, a Pingree spokesperson confirmed.
ICE accused him of overstaying the visa he used to enter the country as a teenager, the Teplers said. The agency offered him voluntary departure, which is sometimes called “self-deporting,” according to Pingree’s office.
“What, exactly, did this accomplish? New Hampshire police and ICE put him through this ordeal, tied up personnel, and spent taxpayer dollars to accomplish absolutely nothing. This was nothing more than a colossal waste of resources, manpower, and taxpayer dollars,” Pingree said in a statement.
By Thursday evening, officials seemed likely to simply release him. On Friday, an agent drove him to the Highgate Springs border crossing in Vermont’s northwest corner.
He arrived in Canada around 4 p.m. Friday, Maya Tepler said. His car was still sitting in a Colebrook lot more than 100 miles away, packed with his belongings.