The Department of Homeland Security is facing a federal ethics complaint after it used a routine ICE arrest to launch a political attack on a Democratic congressional candidate in a key battleground district.
The department’s press release publicized the arrest of a Nigerian man for indecent exposure and alleged that he worked for Janelle Stelson, who is challenging Republican Rep. Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District. ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall said in the release: “It’s unbelievable that Janelle Stelson would employ an illegal alien to work on a congressional campaign, let alone a pervert who exposed himself in public”.
The Complaint
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a complaint Thursday with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, calling the department’s attack a blatant violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits government officials from using their official positions to influence elections.
Donald Sherman, who leads CREW, said he had never seen anything like the department’s statement, where a law enforcement agency “goes out of its way” to reference a campaign affiliation in a press release that has nothing to do with election-related crimes. The press release is “consistent with the message that the administration and that the president has sent from the top that ICE is to be involved in elections, regardless of what the law says,” Sherman said.
The Arrest and the Dispute
According to a police report, Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe was arrested by an East Pennsboro Township police officer on September 27 after a report of a suspicious vehicle parked next to a public park. The officer wrote that when Igbojekwe opened the door, he noticed his “genitals were exposed.” Igbojekwe told the officer he was “in the neighborhood for work and that he was waiting to hand out flyers for Janelle Stelson’s political campaign” and produced a stack of flyers.
Stelson’s campaign strongly denies that Igbojekwe was an employee or volunteer. “We don’t know this individual. Everybody hired goes through me, so I would know,” Stelson said at a news conference. “He’s not an employee. He’s not a volunteer”. A review of Stelson’s federal fundraising reports did not show Igbojekwe’s name among salaried staffers.
How the Claim Spread
The claim that Igbojekwe worked for Stelson originated with a Facebook post from a local police blotter page, which was then picked up by a conservative media outlet and amplified by right-wing activist Scott Presler. DHS cited that reporting in its press release. The department did not respond to questions about how it established the man worked for Stelson .
The Political Context
The arrest came less than a month before the November midterms in a race expected to help determine control of the U.S. House. Stelson, a former local television anchor, narrowly lost to Perry in 2024. A September poll showed her leading Perry 47% to 44% .
The Trump administration is already under scrutiny for using federal resources for political purposes. DHS has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on advertisements glorifying Trump, drawing lawsuits and bipartisan backlash .
The Bottom Line
The Department of Homeland Security is facing a Hatch Act complaint after using an ICE arrest to attack Democratic congressional candidate Janelle Stelson in Pennsylvania. Stelson denies the man worked for her campaign, and federal records do not show any payments to him. CREW says the press release violates federal law prohibiting government officials from using their positions to influence elections. The incident comes less than a month before the midterms in a toss-up race.
My Opinion
The Hatch Act exists for a simple reason: government agencies are not supposed to be political weapons. They are not supposed to use their authority to help one candidate and hurt another. DHS did exactly that. It took a routine arrest of a man accused of indecent exposure, attached it to a congressional candidate who has nothing to do with him, and issued a press release designed to damage her campaign three weeks before the midterms.
The facts do not support the attack. Stelson’s campaign says the man was not an employee or volunteer. Federal fundraising reports show no payments to him. The claim that he worked for her came from a Facebook post, amplified by a right-wing activist, and repeated by the Department of Homeland Security as if it were established fact.
