ICE arrests Mauritanian man hired as Indiana jail guard after asylum claim

Federal officials told Fox News Digital that immigration agents arrested a suspected illegal immigrant on May 21 who had entered the United States under a fraudulent asylum claim and later worked as a corrections officer at the Jay County Jail in Portland, Indiana.

The Department of Homeland Security identified the man as Selah Dine Habib, a native of Mauritania. He crossed the border illegally near Lukeville, Arizona, in March 2023 and was released into the country by the Biden administration, DHS said.

Habib claimed to be homosexual on a pending asylum application filed in 2023, officials said. Investigators later found that he married a woman in 2025. According to WIBC, the woman is the daughter of Jay County Sheriff Larry Ray Newton, whose office employed Habib as an unarmed correctional officer.

Habib submitted an I-9 form and passed an E-Verify check during the hiring process, the Jay County Auditor’s Office told WIBC. The sheriff’s office also conducted its own background checks before hiring him.

DHS said Habib remains in ICE custody at the Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana, while he contests a final deportation order. Officials added that under the current administration ICE is restoring law and order and that illegal immigrants have no place in law enforcement positions.