ICE arrested a Nigerian man DHS identified as a canvasser for a Pennsylvania Democrat’s congressional campaign after he pleaded guilty to exposing himself in public, a claim the campaign flatly denies.
Just The News reported that the Department of Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week took into custody Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe, a Nigerian migrant DHS described as remaining in the country illegally and working as a canvasser for Democrat Janelle Stelson’s race in Pennsylvania’s 10th Congressional District.
The arrest followed his guilty plea to one count of disorderly conduct tied to an alleged public exposure incident the prior month. Stelson’s campaign says it never employed him and never heard of him before the arrest news broke.
Breitbart reported that Igbojekwe was arrested by ICE on October 1 after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct from a September 27 indecent exposure incident in East Pennsboro Township, with residents and children nearby. Court records listed an Aurora, Colorado address for him, and he reportedly had Stelson campaign flyers in his vehicle.
DHS said he was working as a canvasser for Stelson at the time of that incident. Stelson is the Democratic nominee in Pennsylvania’s 10th district.
ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall did not mince words about the alleged campaign role.
Wall said:
"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,"
He added that DHS personnel work daily to target and remove dangerous illegal aliens “like this sicko” from American communities, and that the Trump Administration “will always put the safety of the American people first.”
Stelson’s team rejected the employment claim. Campaign manager Alma Baker issued a denial after the arrest became public.
Baker said:
"This individual is not and has never been employed by the Janelle Stelson campaign,"
She continued:
"If he is an illegal immigrant who committed a crime he should be deported. We never heard of him prior to the news of his arrest."
That leaves a direct conflict on the record. DHS says Igbojekwe was canvassing for Stelson when the exposure incident happened. The campaign says he was never on payroll, never affiliated, and unknown to them until ICE moved.
DHS has not publicly detailed in the available reporting what documents, pay records, supervisor statements, or other evidence underpinned the canvasser identification. The campaign has not explained the flyers Breitbart said were found in his vehicle.
DHS sketched Igbojekwe’s immigration path. He was lawfully admitted to the United States in June 2017. His authorized stay expired in 2019, November 2019, per the fuller timeline in supporting coverage, and DHS said he remained in the country illegally after that.
In 2021, the Biden administration granted him deferred action. Supporting reporting put that grant in September 2021. Deferred action is temporary relief from removal; it is not a green card and does not erase an overstay.
Years later came the September exposure case, the disorderly-conduct plea, and the October ICE arrest. The sequence is the point: entry, expired permission, years of remaining presence under a prior administration’s forbearance, then a public sex-offense-related plea and federal immigration custody while federal officials said he had been working a Democratic House race.
Open questions remain. Local court files beyond the guilty plea to one disorderly-conduct count have not been laid out in full in this reporting. Exact immigration charging papers after the ICE arrest were not detailed. And the factual bridge DHS used to call him a Stelson canvasser “at the time of the incident” has not been produced side-by-side with the campaign’s categorical denial.
Those gaps do not erase what is already on the record. A man DHS says overstayed after 2019 and received deferred action in 2021 pleaded guilty in a public exposure case, was arrested by ICE, and was identified by the homeland security department as having canvassed for a Democratic congressional nominee in Pennsylvania, while that nominee’s campaign insists it never employed him and never knew his name.
House races run on trust, volunteer lists, and who is sent door to door. When ICE takes someone into custody after a public indecency plea, and the department of homeland security says that person was working a major-party campaign, voters deserve a clear accounting, not a shrug and a press statement war.
If campaigns cannot keep illegal immigrants who commit public sex offenses off their field teams, they should not expect the public to take their screening seriously. Enforcement that puts American safety first is not optional theater. It is the bare minimum.
