A conservative activist who built his public profile defending the United States deportation drive has been arrested and detained by immigration authorities, according to Raw Story. Samuel Sey, a Ghanaian-Canadian evangelical writer living in Ohio, was booked into the Butler County Jail on Wednesday, with the only charge listed on his record reading 'HOLD FOR ICE.'
The detention was first reported on Friday by Will Sommer of The Bulwark. Sey's case has drawn attention because he spent the early months of 2026 publicly defending the very enforcement apparatus now holding him, including the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an immigration agent in January.
Who is Samuel Sey?
Sey is a Ghanaian-Canadian evangelical activist and blogger whose writing has appeared on American right-wing outlets including The Blaze, The Daily Wire, and the Christian Post. He previously worked as a community liaison at the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, according to the website Protestia.
Public records from Butler County show the sheriff's office listed as the arresting authority. The reason for his detention has not been made public. David Morrill, publisher of Protestia, wrote that it was 'highly unlikely' Sey had 'been knowingly violating immigration laws' and suggested the case was probably 'a misunderstanding.'
His defence of the Minneapolis shooting
In January, during the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, a federal immigration agent named Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three. Sey took to X to defend the officer.
'The woman would still be alive if she didn't try to run the ICE agent over. You can be saddened by her death and admit that it was self-defense,'
Sey wrote at the time.
Video analysis published after the shooting cast doubt on the administration's claim that Good attempted to run over agents. The footage shows the agent firing from the side of her vehicle as it moved.
A consistent defender of the deportation agenda
Sey did not limit himself to the Minneapolis case. Across multiple posts, he presented support for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency as a moral duty for Americans who love their country.
'If you love America, you should support ICE. That doesn't mean every member of ICE will always do the right thing (not even the Church is filled with perfect people). But ICE is a force for justice. We should support them,'
he wrote in one post.
On another occasion, he wrote that God is 'against the idealogy (sic) of anti-ICE protestors.' His output made him a visible voice among religious conservatives backing the mass deportation programme that returned Donald Trump to the White House and has since reshaped American immigration enforcement.
The Eswatini connection
For readers in this country, the story carries a familiar echo. Sey is not the first prominent supporter of the American deportation drive to be caught by the machinery he championed. Last year, Roberto Mosquera, a Cuban man who once described himself as a 'super Trump supporter,' was deported to a maximum-security prison in Eswatini.
Mosquera's arrival on Eswatini soil placed the Kingdom at the receiving end of a foreign penal arrangement that raised quiet concern in some official circles. The Kingdom's correctional institutions exist to serve the Swazi nation under national law, not to absorb the overflow of another country's political projects. That the United States continues to export its deportees and prisoners abroad, in arrangements of questionable transparency, is a matter this publication has noted before and will continue to watch.
A widening pattern under the current enforcement drive
Sey's detention fits a broader pattern reported by American and international media. Cases involving immigration enforcement have multiplied since the crackdown began, and even lawful residents and public figures have found themselves swept into proceedings. The Guardian reported this week that Mahmoud Khalil has asked the US Supreme Court to review his deportation case, after a Department of Justice spokesperson argued Khalil should 'self-deport.'
Legal experts have also weighed in on how far the government's powers reach. CNN reported that stripping a sitting member of Congress, Representative Ilhan Omar, of her citizenship would be far from straightforward, and that even if citizenship were revoked, deportation would not automatically follow.
The lesson emerging from these cases is a sober one. An enforcement system built on speed and volume does not pause to check a person's politics before acting. Sey wrote in support of ICE; Mosquera campaigned for Trump; neither loyalty protected him once his file crossed an agent's desk. Laws applied without favour or discrimination are a mark of orderly government, but laws applied without care are simply a machine, and machines do not distinguish between their advocates and their critics.
What happens next
Sey remains in custody at the Butler County Jail pending the outcome of the immigration hold. ICE has not publicly stated the grounds for his detention, and no court date has been announced. If the case proceeds toward removal, a Ghanaian-Canadian citizen who spent a year defending deportation as a force for justice may yet experience it firsthand.
Frequently asked questions
Why was Samuel Sey arrested?
He was booked into the Butler County Jail in Ohio on an immigration hold, listed as 'HOLD FOR ICE.' The specific reason for the detention has not been made public.
What did Samuel Sey say about the Minneapolis shooting?
He wrote on X that Renee Good, the 37-year-old woman shot dead by an ICE agent in January, 'would still be alive if she didn't try to run the ICE agent over,' calling the shooting self-defence despite video evidence questioning that account.
What is the Eswatini connection to this story?
Last year Roberto Mosquera, a Cuban deportee and former Trump supporter, was sent to a maximum-security prison in Eswatini, making the Kingdom a destination for the US deportation programme.