A Nigerian national, Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe, has been taken into custody by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) following his guilty plea to a disorderly conduct charge arising from an incident in Pennsylvania, amid a dispute over claims that he was working for a Democratic congressional campaign at the time.
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The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in a statement issued on October 7, said Igbojekwe was initially arrested by police in East Pennsboro Township on September 27 on allegations of indecent exposure and disorderly conduct.
He subsequently pleaded guilty to the disorderly conduct charge before ICE took him into immigration custody on October 1.
According to a police account obtained by the Associated Press, an officer responded to a complaint about a suspicious vehicle parked near a public park in a residential area in the Harrisburg suburb.
The officer stated that when Igbojekwe opened the vehicle door, his genitals were exposed. Igbojekwe allegedly told the officer that he was in the neighbourhood for work and was waiting to distribute campaign flyers for Janelle Stelson, the Democratic candidate for Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. The officer also recorded finding a stack of Stelson campaign flyers in the vehicle.
DHS subsequently described Igbojekwe as a canvasser working for Stelson and, through ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall, criticised the Democratic candidate over the alleged connection.
“It’s unbelievable that Janelle Stelson would employ an illegal alien to work on a Congressional campaign,” Wall said in the DHS statement, before making further critical remarks about Igbojekwe and the incident.
Stelson’s campaign, however, has strongly disputed the DHS characterisation.
The campaign said Igbojekwe had never been employed by it and that officials had not heard of him before learning of his arrest.
“This individual is not and has never been employed by the Janelle Stelson campaign,” campaign manager Alma Baker said.
The campaign added that if Igbojekwe was unlawfully present in the United States and had committed a crime, immigration law should be enforced against him.
The Associated Press also found no payments to Igbojekwe in available Stelson campaign finance records. It remains unclear whether he was canvassing independently or through another organisation.
The distinction has become important because DHS presented the arrest as involving someone employed by the Democratic congressional campaign, while the campaign insists that there was no employment or volunteer relationship.
DHS said Igbojekwe lawfully entered the United States in June 2017 but remained in the country after his authorised stay expired in November 2019.
According to the department, he was granted deferred action by the Biden administration in September 2021. Deferred action generally postpones immigration enforcement against a person for a specified period but does not itself confer permanent lawful immigration status.
The DHS statement did not provide details of the next stage of Igbojekwe’s immigration proceedings.
The manner in which DHS publicised the arrest has meanwhile generated a separate controversy because the department’s official statement directly criticised Stelson, who is contesting a closely watched congressional election against Republican Representative Scott Perry.
The Associated Press said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint alleging that the political language contained in the DHS announcement could violate the Hatch Act, which limits certain partisan political activities by federal employees acting in their official capacities.
The complaint does not determine that a violation occurred; that question would require consideration by the relevant federal authorities.
For Igbojekwe, the immediate legal position is that he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct following the September 27 incident and was subsequently detained by ICE. Although he had also been accused of indecent exposure, the publicly available accounts cited by DHS and the Associated Press identify disorderly conduct as the charge to which he pleaded guilty.
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