Gratien Milandou-Wamba, a 32-year-old corrections officer at the Cumberland County Jail, was detained by ICE on April 19, 2025, while driving to work. He had fled torture and political persecution in the Republic of Congo, entered the U.S. lawfully in May 2023 on a visitor's visa, and obtained a work permit while his asylum application was pending, allowing him to be hired as a corrections officer in August 2024 after passing a background screening. ICE cited his expired visa as grounds for detention, though his attorney said Milandou-Wamba believed he was in legal status while awaiting his asylum decision, and suggested an attempted firearm purchase in September 2024 may have flagged his status to immigration authorities. Cumberland County District Attorney Jackie Sartoris publicly defended him as an upstanding community member, and his friend and landlord, Tyler Brinkmann, described him as kind and gentle and involved in his church. He left his corrections officer position on May 31, 2025, while remaining in ICE custody at Strafford County Department of Corrections in New Hampshire, fearing imprisonment or death if deported to Congo. A federal judge denied him bail citing flight risk, a decision he is appealing, with his asylum hearing scheduled for October 2025.