ICE arrests illegal alien who allegedly faked asylum claim based on homosexuality, became Indiana jail officer
A Mauritanian man who federal officials say entered the United States illegally in 2023 and later secured a job as a corrections officer at a rural Indiana county jail has been arrested by immigration agents and now faces deportation proceedings.
Selah Dine Habib, a native of the West African nation of Mauritania, was taken into custody on May 21 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The agency says Habib crossed into the country in March 2023 near Lukeville, Arizona, and was released into the interior of the United States under the Biden administration.
DHS officials say Habib subsequently filed a pending asylum application in which he claimed to be homosexual. Investigators later learned, the agency alleges, that Habib married a woman in 2025. DHS characterizes the asylum application as fraudulent on that basis.
According to reporting from WIBC, the woman Habib married was the daughter of Jay County Sheriff Larry Ray Newton. After the marriage, Habib joined the Jay County Jail staff as an unarmed correctional officer, making him the sheriff's son-in-law.
Sheriff Newton confirmed to WIBC that Habib had been employed at the jail. The Jay County Auditor's Office also confirmed that Habib submitted an I-9 employment eligibility form during onboarding and that an E-Verify check was completed at that time. The federal system returned a result of "employment authorized," the auditor's office said, and added that any discrepancy flagged by E-Verify would have stopped the hiring process immediately.
The auditor's office noted that individual departments are responsible for reference checks, background checks, and drug screenings before new hires are submitted for processing, and directed further questions about hiring practices to the sheriff.
In a statement, DHS said, "He entered the country illegally in March 2023 near Lukeville, Arizona, and was RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration where he was reportedly hired as a corrections officer in Indiana. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings."
The agency added that Habib's "pending asylum application is believed to be fraudulent, as he applied based on homosexuality in 2023 but married a woman in 2025."
A broader statement from DHS read: "Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin ICE is restoring law and order. Illegal aliens have NO PLACE in our communities, especially in positions of law enforcement."
Habib is currently being held by ICE at the Clay County Jail detention facility in Brazil, Indiana. According to WIBC, citing unnamed sources, Habib is contesting a final deportation order from the United States.
The case comes amid heightened federal scrutiny of public-sector employers who have hired workers without legal status. Recent reporting has highlighted similar incidents in other states, including a New Orleans police recruit detained after an immigration judge signed a removal order following his hiring, a Pennsylvania corrections officer trainee arrested on suspicion of rape, and a Maine police officer accused of attempting to purchase a firearm while in the country illegally.
Jay County is a small, largely agricultural community in eastern Indiana near the Ohio border. The jail where Habib worked serves as the county's primary corrections facility.
ICE did not immediately indicate a timeline for Habib's removal proceedings. Federal authorities have not announced any charges or investigation into the circumstances of his hiring.
