A Maine soccer player detained by immigration officials has been denied bond, according to his attorney.
Malunda Destino, 24, was arrested by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, in Scarborough last month. He was a member of Maine Legends FC, a semiprofessional soccer club in Lewiston.
Destino, who is from Angola, is currently being held at a federal prison in Berlin, New Hampshire, according to ICE’s online locator system. ICE officials said Destino entered the country illegally in 2022.
Destino applied for asylum after arriving in the U.S. illegally, his attorney David Spitzer said.
Spitzer said an immigration judge denied Destino’s asylum request and ordered him to be removed from the country in 2023. He said Destino filed an appeal that is still pending.
After he was arrested by ICE last month, Destino requested to be released on bond, but an immigration judge determined Thursday that the court doesn’t have the authority to consider his request, Spitzer said.
Spitzer said the judge cited a recent ruling from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Board of Immigration Appeals that says immigration judges can’t consider bond for people who have entered the country illegally.
“We’re in uncharted territory, where we have the current government that is creating new policies and new interpretations of laws that deviate from the way things have been interpreted for years and years and years,” Spitzer said.
Spitzer said he’s working to get Destino an attorney in New Hampshire who can file a habeas corpus petition to request that a judge consider whether Destino is being lawfully detained.
“He is being held illegally and he is completely deprived of any ability to prove the fact that he should be released,” Spitzer said.
Destino’s teammates with Maine Legends FC have said they miss his presence on and off the field. The team raised more than $5,000 to support his family and pregnant girlfriend.
This story has been updated with new information from Destino’s attorney.
