Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Congolese man living in Westbrook and serving as a pastor in South Portland last Wednesday after he reportedly overstayed his visa.
The pastor, Michel Tshimankinda, was reportedly driving his wife home from her job when ICE agents stopped their vehicle and requested identification.
According to Tshimankinda’s daughter, Jobel Tshimankinda, speaking with the Portland Press Herald on Monday, ICE agents escorted her parents home, where they took her father into custody and allowed her mother to go free.
Tshimankinda was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and his family reportedly came to the U.S. legally in 2016 on a temporary visa.
ICE spokesperson James Covington told the Portland paper that Tshimankinda’s arrest was a targeted enforcement activity based on Tshimankinda’s visa overstay.
It is not clear why the rest of Tshimankinda’s family was not detained or whether the circumstances surrounding Tshimankinda’s visa differed from those of the rest of his family.
In addition to serving as a pastor, Tshimankinda reportedly also worked as a laboratory technician, information that appears to be supported by a LinkedIn page for a Michael Tshimankinda living in Westbrook.
The page shows that, at the time of his arrest, Tshimankinda worked as a technician at the Maine Health NorDx laboratory, beginning in 2017, one year after he entered the U.S.
Tshimankinda’s church was reportedly in South Portland and focused on a “multicultural” congregation of immigrants. Notably, the Portland paper did not name Tshimankinda’s church, but it appears to be the Restoration Church of Maine, based in South Portland, which has a pastor known as Michael T., who appears identical to Tshimankinda.
Jobel Tshimankinda established a GoFundMe page for her father, where she hopes to raise $28,000 to fund her father’s legal efforts to avoid deportation and to meet her family’s financial needs.
“Now, without him here, our family might be facing emotional and financial hardship. Bills, rent, and legal fees will begin to pile up, so we are looking at the future of this case,” said Jobel.
“The funds from this GoFundMe will go directly toward legal fees to fight for our dad’s release and immigration case and basic living expenses while our main source of income is gone,” she added.
As of late Wednesday morning, the Kickstarter campaign had raised nearly $24,000.
The ICE detainee locator shows that Tshimankinda is being held in the Strafford County Corrections Facility in New Hampshire, which partners with ICE to detain individuals awaiting deportation.
