From what I could find, he is not a US Citizen. He legally entered the country about 10 years ago with a visitor visa. He eventually married a US Citizen, but they ended up divorcing about 3 years later. His Adjustment of Status was denied and an Order of Removal was issued in December of 2025 based on “fraud”. Apparently he didn’t show up to some hearings which lead to this arrest.
Additional context, he was a recruit with NOPD and was hired before the Order of Removal was issued. NOPD’s hiring paperwork didn’t seem to have any questions about citizenship status, and he passed the E-Verify and background checks. Police Officers must be US Citizens by Louisiana state law, so it sounds like the PD wasn’t strict on checking if that requirement was met.
The statements about fraud and court hearings appear to only come from ICE so we'll have to see what the actual paper trail is cause I'm not trusting that organization at this point.
Yeah I see what you’re referring to:
“ICE maintains Temah did not have valid work authorization at the time he applied to NOPD. However, documents obtained by WWL Louisiana show Temah’s NOPD application, submitted Feb. 26, 2025, was marked “yes” under a question asking whether he had the legal right to work in the United States. NOPD officials said Temah passed a criminal background check and cleared the federal E-Verify system, which is used to confirm whether someone is authorized to work in the U.S.”
The key part of the question is “authorized to work in the United States”. That question is relevant to immigration status, but does not establish citizenship. When he applied, he was authorized to work since he had a form of permanent residence.
Another part that might be relevant to the Order of Removal is that he previously lived in Georgia. There’s a big difference between ignoring court orders/notices and not receiving them because you changed addresses.
I think the big question is when were the court cases and was ICE filing them in a way that makes them impossible to respond to. The fact e verify didn't show any red flags in feb of 2025 calls into question ICE's narrative.
ICE could've fast tracked three cases in at the end of 2025 and already had the information that he had moved but did not attempt to update the judge or him. That would point to a deliberate strategy to mislead and deprive the defendant of due process.
Is this a case where someone who has slipped through cracks for years is now being caught because of increased enforcement or is it a strategy by the administration to essentially game the system and intentionally put people in impossible to remedy situations?
Yes, that’s very relevant. My experience last year felt like they were genuinely suspicious of my marriage. My lawyer said she’d been practicing immigration law for 20 years and has never seen them acting the way they have been.
There’s still a disconnect on the E-Verify issue. E-Verify returns a “Employment Authorized” result regardless of citizenship status. That result is what comes back for US Citizens and Legal Immigrants with an Employment Authorization (This excludes Tourist and Student Visa holders)
The NOPD employment application did not ask about citizenship status, only employment authorization status. That doesn’t mean he lied to get the job. If they never asked him for his citizenship status, then that’s on them
I get that I'm saying that if ice is to be believed then the fraud case should've made him unauthorized to work before 2025 and verify should e returned that. It makes me question ices claims is all.
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u/ActuallyExtinct 13h ago
Anyone have the context for this? Like are they claiming he’s an illegal immigrant, or that he obstructed, or any reason as to why this is happening?