Federal immigration agents in Boston arrested Pekings Aziwung, a Cameroonian national convicted of rape, the moment he walked out of Massachusetts Department of Correction custody. ICE Boston described Aziwung as a criminal illegal alien with 12 adult arraignments, and agents took him into custody immediately following his release from state prison.
According to New Bedford Guide, Aziwung was convicted of rape and also convicted of solicitation to commit a crime. ICE did not immediately release further details on the arrest date, arrest location, or Aziwung's current detention status, and the outlet reported that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations division has been targeting noncitizens with criminal convictions in recent Massachusetts operations.
What the Appeals Court Record Shows
Court records from a 2024 Massachusetts appeals decision lay out the underlying case in detail. Per the record cited by FindLaw, Aziwung was convicted of rape after strangling and assaulting a woman he was dating when she told him she did not want to continue having sex; at trial, he maintained the encounters were consensual. On February 7, 2024, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts affirmed his rape conviction and denied his motion for a new trial following his Superior Court conviction by a six-person jury.
In his state appeal, Aziwung argued he had been coerced into waiving his right to a 12-person jury, contending the trial judge indicated that house arrest during the COVID-19 pandemic would only be considered if he agreed to a six-person jury trial instead. The appeals court rejected that coercion claim, treating the arrangement as a practical response to pandemic-era court delays rather than an improper pressure tactic.
How Massachusetts and ICE Coordinate Custody Transfers
Massachusetts law limits how local and state officers can hold people for federal immigration purposes. Under the state Supreme Judicial Court's 2017 ruling in Lunn v. Commonwealth, examined by the Harvard Law Review, local and state law enforcement officers lack legal authority to hold individuals solely on federal civil ICE detainers once state custody has ended.
That restriction is why a separate mechanism matters in cases like Aziwung's. Since 2020, the Massachusetts Department of Correction has maintained an information-sharing agreement with ICE that authorizes state prison officials to notify federal authorities before a noncitizen inmate's release, according to a document from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That notification system allows ICE agents to take custody directly at the prison gates rather than relying on a civil detainer hold that state officers cannot legally enforce. Separately, Massachusetts Department of Correction classification policy updated for fiscal year 2024 legally prohibits placing incarcerated individuals subject to ICE detainers or deportation orders into minimum-security facilities, with classification officers holding no authority to override that immigration-based restriction.
Broader Federal Immigration Pressure on Cameroonian Nationals
Aziwung's case unfolds against a shifting federal immigration landscape for people from his home country. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security officially terminated Temporary Protected Status for Cameroonian nationals effective August 4, 2025, ending temporary lawful status for roughly 5,200 Cameroonian citizens nationwide, per U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. TPS had originally been granted to Cameroonians in 2022 because of armed conflict in the country.
The arrest also comes amid intensified regional enforcement. In June 2025, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston reported arresting 370 noncitizens with criminal records during a targeted multi-agency operation across Massachusetts. The Department of Homeland Security reported in October 2025 that more than 600 of the 1,400 noncitizens arrested during a months-long Massachusetts enforcement operation had significant criminal convictions or pending charges.
Conditions at the facility where many Massachusetts arrestees are processed have also drawn scrutiny. In December 2025, U.S. Senator Edward Markey sent a formal oversight inquiry to ICE Boston leadership raising concerns over severe overcrowding and frigid holding cell conditions at the Burlington processing facility, which serves as the region's primary intake office.
Hoodline has covered similar federal sweeps targeting noncitizens convicted of violent crimes in Massachusetts, including recent ICE Boston arrests connected to rape cases. ICE has not released further details on Aziwung's arrest date, arrest location, or current detention status.
