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Resident urges council to press ICE for release of detained asylum seeker
Summary
David Veneciano, a District 7 resident, asked the St. Charles County Council to use its contacts with ICE to seek the release and return of Armande Rayon Nengue, whom he says was detained on a false shoplifting charge after seven years living in the county; he requested council follow up in two weeks.
David Veneciano, a resident of District 7, used the council’s public-comment period to ask St. Charles County elected officials to intervene with federal immigration authorities on behalf of Armande Rayon Nengue, an asylum seeker he said has lived in the county for seven years.
Veneciano told the council Nengue fled persecution in Cameroon, declared asylum at the border and ‘‘followed every law, every statute’’ during seven years in the United States. He said she was detained at a routine check-in in January on a shoplifting allegation that he described as a false charge and that she has been held in a Texas facility without a bed for several months.
‘‘We have two weeks to do it,’’ Veneciano told the council, asking members to call the county’s ICE contacts and request Nengue’s release to return to the local community. He said he printed supporting articles and asked the council to report progress at the next meeting.
The council did not take action during the meeting. The County Executive offered no oral report and no formal request or referral was recorded on the agenda; Veneciano’s request therefore remains a public plea rather than a council directive.
The matter as described at the meeting raises procedural limits: immigration enforcement and detention decisions are made by federal authorities, and the council has no authority to order a release. Veneciano asked only that council members use existing contacts to inquire about the case and report back at the next meeting.
Next step: Veneciano asked the council to report progress at the meeting scheduled in two weeks.
