Saco father detained by ICE at jetport on way to visit deaf son

Nguinamau Celestino’s wife dropped him off at the Portland jetport at 3 a.m. to catch an early flight to Washington, D.C. He was on his way to visit Abel, his youngest son, who had just begun his first semester at a high school for the deaf. Nguinamau never arrived. Celestino’s daughter, Margarida, 24, said her brother checked their father’s location on his phone after his flight was scheduled to land. He was at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Scarborough. Margarida, a medical technician based in Auburn, woke at 6 a.m. to two missed calls from her dad, which she returned, but he didn’t pick up. She was on her way to work when her mom called; Margarida told her employer there was a family emergency and headed to Saco, where her parents live, to put the pieces together. “Usually we see videos of people being taken, but unfortunately, everything with my dad was so silent,” she said. “Nobody said anything.” The Celestino family — which includes Nguinamau, his wife Sukombo, their eldest Margarida and three sons, Lionel, 21, Nludi, 18, and Abel, 15 — are originally from Angola, later lived in Namibia and came to the U.S. in 2017 as asylum seekers. Their…