This collaborative statement was issued after DHS noted earlier on Wednesday that using E-Verify “does not excuse employers from their legal responsibility to verify document authenticity, and all employers should take adequate actions to effectively confirm legal work status.”

“The Old Orchard Beach Police Department’s reckless reliance on E-Verify to justify arming an illegal alien, Jon Luke Evans, violates federal law, and does not absolve them of their failure to conduct basic background checks to verify legal status,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in the statement.

McLaughlin also defended the E-Verify system, saying it “is a proven, no-cost tool that delivers high accuracy in verifying work authorization by cross-checking employee documents against government databases to combat rampant document fraud and protecting American workers.”

E-Verify is operated by the Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Social Security ministration.

After McLaughlin issued the DHS statement, Old Orchard Beach released a statement of its own detailing the steps it took to verify Evans’ immigration status and eligibility to work.

The town said that before the police department hired Evans, it compiled a 153-page personnel file on him that included background checks, driving records, copies of identification cards, education and medical records, and personal references.

Evans provided required information including an I-9 federal immigration and work authorization form, as well as his Jamaican birth certificate, Massachusetts driver’s license, U.S. social security card, work authorization card, among other documents, according to the statement.

“The Old Orchard Beach Police Department thoroughly checked Mr. Evans’ background and verified that all information and documentation he provided was accurate. The depth of his personnel file shows the diligence the Town takes in hiring,” Police Chief Elise Chard said.

It said it then submitted Evans’ forms to DHS’ E-Verify program, and in May the federal agency verified Evans’ status and said he was authorized to work legally through March 19, 2030.

“Evans would not have been permitted to begin work in Old Orchard Beach without DHS verifying his status. The federal government has aggressively pushed all employers — government and private — to rely on E-Verify in the hiring process,” the town and police department said.

“Simply stated, had the federal government flagged his information the Town would not have hired Mr. Evans,” Chard said. “Any insinuation that the Town and Department were derelict in our efforts to verify Mr. Evans’ eligibility to work for the Town is false and appears to be an attempt to shift the blame onto a hard-working local law enforcement agency that has done its job.”

The policed released 54 pages of his personnel file, which NBC News has reviewed, showing records related to his police department application process, which state that employment is conditional upon a background check, the submission of mandatory paperwork, drug screening and mandatory training sessions. The records also show Evans was required to provide two valid forms of ID for payroll processing and that he passed all of his training sessions before he was approved to work as a reserve officer. The documents also include Evans’ résumé and educational records.

DHS did not respond to requests for comment on the Old Orchard Beach town and police department statement. It also did not share what steps and methods, beyond E-Verify, it suggests local police departments and other employers use to independently verify an immigrant applicant’s legal status and work authorization.

ICE had accused the police department of “knowingly breaking the law” and hiring an immigrant in the country illegally. The police department denied the claim, saying the federal government’s own system had approved the man to work as a reserve officer.

Rep. Lori K. Gramlich, a Democrat who represents Old Orchard Beach in the state’s House of Representatives, said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday that in light of the conflicting accounts, she was calling for a thorough federal review of E-Verify and DHS’ authorization process “that allowed Officer Evans to begin work in good faith in May 2025.

“This incident highlights the importance and necessity of reliable federal systems to support the lawful employment of noncitizen residents in community-serving roles,” she said. “We must do better to prevent such situations in the future, protect community trust and ensure fairness and accountability.”

Maine is one of about a dozen states that allow noncitizens to work in law enforcement. Some require the immigrant to be a green-card holder, while others, such as Maine, require the immigrant to be legally authorized to work in the U.S.

The town has said that its police department, like many in coastal communities, uses a seasonal supplementary workforce when the population surges in the summer months.

Maine has some 34,000 immigrant workers, or 4.6% of the state’s labor force, according to the American Immigration Council. There are also an estimated 5,800 unauthorized immigrants of working age in the state, according to the council.