Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained another Cumberland County Jail corrections officer today, the fifth in less than two years. But this time, supporters had advance notice and were able to rally support for his family ahead of time.
Outside ICE's Scarborough field office on Tuesday, a woman named Allisandra was on the phone with Dannick Massamba-Bankela, the corrections officer who was on his way here to meet his lawyer before a scheduled appointment with immigration agents.
Other volunteers had reported several ICE vehicles driving around Massamba-Bankela's neighborhood, and they wanted to warn him.
"Make a turn and get out of the neighborhood," Allisandra told him, over the phone. "There is a chance that they try and take you before you get here because they do not want you to be with your lawyer. So you need to get here as soon as possible."
Allisandra, who asked to be identified only by her first name out of concerns for her privacy, is part of a small group that keeps a daily watch outside the Scarborough field office. They document detentions and connect families with legal and financial support.
She was outside the office on Saturday when Massamba-Bankela showed up with his two young kids, and told her ICE had called him in.
"Saturdays and Sundays, there's not typically check-ins," Allisandra said. "It's very abnormal. Anytime we've seen someone called in on a weekend, they usually get detained, so it was a red flag for us."
But Massamba-Bankela was not detained. Instead, he was told to take his kids home and report back to the office on Tuesday.
That gave Allisandra and others enough time to organize support for the family, and for Massamba-Bankela's lawyer, Christina Corbaci, to drive up from Massachusetts to accompany him.
"My intention is to go in there with a set of documentation to show his extensive ties to the community, and to ask that ICE exercise their discretion to not detain him," Corbaci said. "They have options. They don't need to actually take him into custody."
Corbaci said Massamba-Bankela, originally from the Republic of the Congo, entered the U.S. on a visa and filed an asylum claim, which is still pending. She said he has work authorization and no criminal record, and is the sole breadwinner for his family.
"From my perspective, there is absolutely no reason that this should be happening because he's doing everything he's supposed to be doing," she said.
Eventually, Massamba-Bankela arrived at the ICE office without agents stopping him on the way. But that came as little comfort.
"I'm worried and I'm afraid," he said. "But I'm just here."
Holding a brown paper bag with his daily medication, he said he told his family he'd be back as soon as he could.
"I love them, my kids, my wife, and I guess I will be back as soon as possible," he said. "So this is my wish, to take care of them."
Then, he and Corbaci went inside.
A friend, named Jeremy, who also asked that we not use his last name, waited outside.
"I just wanted to help any way I could, you know, because they're basically family," Jeremy said. "I just don't know what to do right now, except just watch."
A short while later, Christina Corbaci, the lawyer, emerged, alone.
Corbaci said the agents told her Massamba-Bankela was being detained for overstaying a visa, despite the asylum claim pending in a backlogged system, part of a shifting pattern of immigration enforcement.
"It's not his fault that the U.S. government delays forever in scheduling these asylum interviews," Corbaci said. "So, what is a person supposed to do? He's putting down ties. He's moving forward with his life. He's integrating into the community exactly like we ask immigrants to do, fully."
Corbaci said she's confident Massamba-Bankela will be released on bond, and that she'd file that motion right here from her car.
Allisandra, the observer who'd been in touch with Massamba-Bankela's wife, also swung into action.
"I'm gonna go run to Costco and get everything that she's gonna need for however long he's gonna be gone," Allisandra said.
At the top of the list: baby wipes, diapers, and formula. Then, she said, she'd sit with Massamba-Bankela's wife and break the news that he's not coming home today.
An ICE spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
