A federal judge on Monday postponed the habeas hearing for the Congolese man who has been held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody at Maine’s Cumberland County Jail since last fall, effectively preventing his deportation while the litigation is ongoing.
Eyidi Ambila, 44, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has lived in the U.S. since the age of seven.
Ambila has been held at the Cumberland County Jail by ICE on an immigration detainer since September 23, 2024, after completing a 125-day prison sentence for two misdemeanors.
ICE lodges immigration detainers against unlawfully present noncitizens who have been arrested on criminal charges and who the agency believes are deportable from the U.S.
For his most recent incarceration, Ambila was initially arrested by Portland Police on May 21, 2024, on charges of criminal trespass, terrorizing and domestic violence assault.
A copy of Ambila’s state criminal history record obtained by the Maine Wire shows that for his May 2024 arrest in Portland, Ambila was originally indicted on counts of domestic violence aggravated assault (Class B felony), two counts of domestic violence assault (Class D misdemeanor), terrorizing (Class D misdemeanor), domestic violence terrorizing (Class D), aggravated criminal trespass (Class C felony), and reckless conduct (Class D).
Under state law, a person is guilty of felony-level domestic violence aggravated assault when they use a dangerous weapon in the assault, cause a severe level of bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death for the victim or permanent disfigurement, or cause bodily injury that shows “extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
Despite Ambila originally being indicted under multiple felony counts, he was prior to his arraignment last year given a plea deal by which he plead guilty to just two misdemeanor counts: Class D domestic violence assault and Class D reckless conduct.
Ambila’s criminal history indicates that the felony domestic violence charge, one of the misdemeanor domestic violence charges, the terrorizing charge, the domestic violence terrorizing charge and the felony aggravated criminal trespass charge were all dismissed by Cumberland County District Attorney Jackie Sartoris.
The criminal history record also shed light on the nature of Ambila’s prior felony conviction from the early 2000s.
The record shows that Ambila was arrested for Class B felony aggravated assault by Skowhegan Police in October of 2001. He was found guilty and was sentenced to a five-year suspected sentence and four years of probation.
It was after serving this sentence for felony aggravated assault that Ambila was detained in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody in December 2005, and was ordered removed to the DRC in October 2006.
However, he was released from DHS custody on an order of supervision in August 2007.
In late May, months into Ambila’s detainment at the Cumberland County Jail, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maine filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Ambila to seek his immediate release.
The Maine ACLU claimed in their filing that the DRC, Ambila’s country of origin, has no record of him and has declined to issue him travel documents, making him “effectively stateless.”
In their filing, the Maine ACLU states that Ambila’s entire family now lives in the U.S. after fleeing from the DRC due to political persecution, including his three children, all of whom are U.S. citizens and of whom Ambila is the primary provider.
The ACLU also said that Ambila previously received a green card and a social security number.
The Maine ACLU did not specify in their filing that Ambila’s 2001 felony conviction was for aggravated assault, nor did they mention that Ambila was originally charged last year with multiple felony-level counts related to domestic violence.
On Monday, the ACLU of Maine announced that Judge Nancy Torresen of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine issued an order postponing Ambila’s habeas hearing, meaning he will not be deported while the legal proceedings are ongoing.
In her order, Judge Torresen cited “good cause” for the postponment, stating that the federal government had not convinced her that Ambila’s deporation is “actually imminent.”
However, Torresen did state in her order that there were still “many unanswered questions” in the case.
