A Portland man who was held by U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement for nine months without a hearing at a county jail in New Hampshire is now free, but he may still face deportation.
A judge found that Abdigani Faisal Hussein, a permanent U.S. resident who is married and has three children, was not a flight risk or a danger. The ACLU of New Hampshire took up Hussein's case, and a lawsuit they filed last month that ultimately led to his release.
Hussein entered the US legally in 1996 as a Somali refugee, and became a permanent resident one year later. ICE detained him in March because he was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to probation for possessing khat, a mild stimulant grown in East Africa that's illegal in the U.S.
Hussein was allowed to stay in the country if he checked in periodically with ICE. But, ACLU attorney Henry Klementowicz says that new Trump administration policies changed that status. He spoke with Maine Things Considered host Nora Flaherty about the case it’s implications going forward.
Originally published Nov. 20, 2018.