The town’s police chief, Elise Chard, said recent public remarks Homeland Security officials criticizing her department “appears to be an attempt to shift the blame onto a hard-working local law enforcement agency that has done its job.

Officials in a Maine town where immigration authorities arrested a police officer say the officer was a trusted member of the force who is missed by his colleagues.

ICE says that Jon Luke Evans is in the US illegally, and broke the law when he tried to purchase a gun. But the Old Orchard Beach police chief says Evans' legal status was verified by the federal Department of Homeland Security.