The family of an 82-year-old Chilean national feared he was dead for weeks before discovering that he had been detained by ICE after he misplaced his green card, according to a report.
Relatives last saw Luis Leon, who lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on June 20, when he and his wife visited the Philadelphia immigration office to replace his lost green card, The Morning Call first reported.
There, officers handcuffed him and took him away without explanation, relatives told the outlet. His family was left scrambling, contacting immigration offices, hospitals and even a morgue for more information on Leon’s whereabouts.
Then, on July 9, Leon’s wife received a call that seemed to confirm the family’s worst fears; the caller claimed the 82-year-old had died.
Thankfully, this week, his family members learned that Leon had been moved from a detention facility in Minnesota to Guatemala. He’s now in a hospital in Guatemala City, the outlet reported. The Independent has reached out to ICE for more information.
It’s not immediately clear why he was sent to Guatemala. But last month, the Supreme Court left the door open for the Trump administration to deport immigrants to countries they have never called home.
“I can see all my family is in pain right now,” his granddaughter Nataly told The Morning Call. She’s planning to fly to Guatemala to see her grandfather, who suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions.
She told the outlet she hopes to amplify Leon’s experience to show how he was treated by the immigration system.
If the multi-location ordeal wasn’t enough, the unknown caller contacted the family another time. Days after immigration authorities arrested Leon, a woman claiming to be an immigration attorney called Leon’s wife and claimed she could help get Leon out on bail. However, she didn’t mention how she learned about the case or where he was at the time.
Leon was granted political asylum in 1987 after surviving Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime, the outlet reported. He has a clean record — and hasn’t even been given so much as a parking ticket, the family claimed.
He’s not alone, figures from the data distribution organization Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse show. As of this week, there are more than 56,800 people in ICE detention; 72 percent of them have no criminal convictions.
