Maine resident who spent weeks in ICE custody describes ‘brutality’ of his detainment
By Jim Keithley
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SACO, Maine (WMTW) — A man who lives in Maine is back home after spending three weeks in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency more commonly known as ICE.
Saco resident Makengo Nzeza, an asylum seeker from Angola, said he was heading back to his family’s house from Maine Medical Center on Jan. 23, five days after his wife delivered their fourth child following an emergency C-section.
Nzeza said two vehicles with six ICE agents pulled him over at gunpoint and took him into custody.
“Two guys come in my car and one pointed a gun,” Nzeza said.
Nzeza said he was then put in a van with 10 other detainees and driven to Burlington, Massachusetts, where he and dozens of others spent six days and five nights.
“The conditions were not good, no,” he said. “They put maybe 40 to 45 people in the same room, and not so big a room.”
Nzeza said there was some food, but they had to sleep on a cold floor.
“It was stressful,” he said. “It was not good conditions for humans, for days and days.”
After those rough days in Burlington, Nzeza was transferred to a facility in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where he spent two more weeks.
Nzeza said his immigration lawyer met with a judge and after posting $2,000 bond, he was released and returned home on Feb. 12.
“Everybody was happy to see me, and thanks to them for what they did for my family and myself, too,” Nzeza said.
Nzeza thanked the community at the First Parish Congregational Church in Saco, which rallied behind his family in his time of need.
The Rev. Scott Cousineau, the church’s senior minister, spoke with Maine’s Total Coverage several days after Nzeza was apprehended.
“He’s not the ‘worst of the worst.’ He’s the best of the best,” Cousineau said of Nzeza.
Nzeza said Thursday that he is grateful to be home and to be able to hold his newborn daughter in his arms. His entire family returned to the church on Sunday, Feb. 15. During the service, Cousineau called Nzeza up to the pulpit and he received a standing ovation from the congregation.
Nzeza called his ICE detainment a terrible ordeal.
“The brutality they used on me, I did not understand because I did not do nothing bad,” he said.
Nzeza said he is in the United States legally, but his asylum case is pending. He will have to return to Massachusetts sometime in the next two to three months and defend his case in front of a judge.
On Friday, Nzeza plans to return to work at an assisted living facility for people suffering from Alzheimer’s.
Nzeza said he is active and involved in the community. He is also a member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.
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