ICE Arrest Indian National Running “Wallace’s Market” Convenience Store in Friendship

ICE agents arrested the Indian national and alleged illegal-alien owner of Wallace’s Market, a gas station, convenience store, and restaurant in Friendship, on Saturday.

[RELATED: Border Patrol Nabs Four Indian, One Algerian National Attempting Illegal Crossing into Maine…]

A group of four ICE agents entered the market on Saturday and took Dhavalkumar Patel into custody.

Patel reportedly owns the business with his wife and has operated it since 2024.

According to the ICE Inmate Locator, Patel is currently being held in the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts.

Patel’s lawyer, Audrey Richardson, an attorney with Greater Boston Legal Services, told Maine Public that he was working the store’s cash register when immigration enforcement arrived.

Richardson said that the agents called Patel over to them and handcuffed him without immediately explaining why they were there or who they were.

She told the taxpayer-funded outlet that the agents had “no reason” to arrest Patel, though she conspicuously refused to disclose her client’s immigration status.

ICE provided more details on the arrest in its own statement to the outlet, explaining that Patel was allegedly arrested by Border Patrol on November 1, 2010, when he entered the country illegally, and is subject to a deportation order.

“He was released from custody on March 18, 2011, pending the outcome of his removal proceedings. He failed to show up for his immigration hearing and was ordered removed by a Justice Department immigration judge on August 8, 2011,” ICE said.

They reportedly affirmed that Patel will remain in ICE custody until he is removed from the U.S.

Richardson has already filed a challenge against the arrest in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts in the form of a motion for habeas corpus, meaning Patel would be brought to court in person to defend himself.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts issued an order hours after his arrest preventing Patel from being moved for 72 hours after her order was filed to give a judge time to review Richardson’s petition.