House Democratic candidate denies illegal immigrant arrested
The campaign of Janelle Stelson, the Democrat challenging Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) in Pennsylvania’s battleground 10th Congressional District, denied…
You have to hand it to Janelle Stelson's campaign: denying a connection to Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe is the only move they had left. He's a Nigerian national who was in the country illegally, arrested for allegedly exposing himself in public, and now he's pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. The campaign says he was never a volunteer, never staff, never anything.
Commentary is separate from the original publisher's reporting.
The campaign of Janelle Stelson, the Democrat challenging Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) in Pennsylvania’s battleground 10th Congressional District, denied Wednesday that an alleged illegal immigrant who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after allegedly exposing himself in public was associated with her campaign.
Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe, a 35-year-old Nigerian national, was arrested Sept. 27 on one count of indecent exposure and two counts of disorderly conduct. He has since pleaded guilty to one third-degree misdemeanor disorderly conduct after the other two charges were dropped. He was arrested Oct. 1 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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A Wednesday press release from the Department of Homeland Security identified Igbojekwe as a former door-to-door canvasser for Stelson. The agency cited a local news story, whose source for its reporting was an X post from conservative activist and social media influencer Scott Presler.
The Stelson campaign told the Washington Examiner they became aware of Igbojekwe after his initial arrest and that he was neither a staffer nor a volunteer.
“This is false,” the campaign said of the alleged connection. “This individual is not and has never been employed by the Janelle Stelson campaign. 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. We are grateful to law enforcement for acting swiftly to arrest him.”
Igbojekwe was lawfully admitted to the United States under President Donald Trump’s first term in June 2017 but overstayed his authorization period that ended in November 2019 and was granted deferred action by the Biden administration in September 2021, according to DHS.
ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall said it was “unbelievable” that Igbojekwe would have been employed by a congressional campaign. The House GOP’s campaign arm also criticized Stelson.
“Radical lunatic Janelle Stelson oversees her own failing campaign the way she’d like to see the border enforced: zero standards, no accountability, and a welcome mat for illegal creeps,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Reilly Richardson said in a statement. “Stelson wants to flood Pennsylvania communities with criminal illegal immigrants because that’s who’s propping up her campaign.”
Stelson is a former local TV news anchor who casts herself as a centrist Democrat to contrast Perry’s conservatism as former head of the House Freedom Caucus and a loyal ally to Trump. Perry narrowly defeated Stelson in 2024 50.5% to 49.3%.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
You have to hand it to Janelle Stelson's campaign: denying a connection to Chimaobim Adedayo Igbojekwe is the only move they had left. He's a Nigerian national who was in the country illegally, arrested for allegedly exposing himself in public, and now he's pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. The campaign says he was never a volunteer, never staff, never anything. Fine. But the fact that this story exists at all tells you everything about the Democratic Party's border problem.
The timeline is a problem. Stelson is running in a district where her opponent, Scott Perry, has made border security a defining issue. And here she is, forced to answer for someone who shouldn't have been in the country in the first place. The arrest happened in late September, which means the story breaks right as voters are tuning in. That's not a coincidence; that's the news cycle doing what it does. The campaign can deny affiliation until they're blue in the face, but the visual of an illegal immigrant charged with a public indecency offense is now attached to her race.
What's telling is how quickly the denial came. No "we're looking into it," no "we've reached out to authorities." Just a flat, categorical "not us, no way." It's the kind of response you give when you know the facts are bad and you just need to get ahead of the damage. But here's the thing: voters in Pennsylvania's 10th District don't need a campaign connection to draw a line. They see a broken border, and they see a Democrat who's spent the last year saying the system is fine.
The story isn't going anywhere. It doesn't matter if this guy never shook Stelson's hand or attended a single rally. The broader picture is that her party's base wants open borders, and her party's leadership keeps pretending that illegal immigration isn't a public safety issue. Perry has been hammering on this for months, and this incident hands him a live example to point to. Stelson can distance herself all she wants, but the stain is there. In a battleground district, that's the kind of thing that moves votes in November.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.