US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are believed to have secretly deported Luis Leon, an 82-year-old man in Pennsylvania, to Guatemala. The longtime Allentown resident was reportedly dealt with a significant blow after he visited an immigration office to get his misplaced green card replaced.
As per the first report of the incident pushed by Morning Call, the elderly ended up losing his green card as he misplaced his wallet that held the crucial necessity backing his legal residency in the US.
Having booked an appointment for June 20, he arrived at the immigration office to get a replacement green card issued. Instead of his request being processed ahead, the situation completely flipped out of Luis Leon’s control when ICE agents arrested him on the spot. His wife, who had accompanied him, was not given any explanation for the apprehension.
What do we know about Luis Leon? Pennsylvania grandfather secretly deported
The Pennsylvania man was granted political asylum in America in 1987 after he survived the torturous implications of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Although now retired, Leon spent his nearly four-decade-long life in the United States working in a leather manufacturing plant. The old man suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. His family further revealed that he even has a heart condition.
Where is Luis Leon now?
Following his June 20 arrest, his family failed to recover any information about Luis Leon’s whereabouts. A woman claiming to be an immigration lawyer initially contacted them. However, no details about Leon were divulged at the time. Leon’s granddaughter then shared that the same person reached out to the family earlier this month, suggesting that the torture survivor had died.
Just a week later, a relative in Chile informed Leon’s family in the US that he was, in fact, alive, but in a Guatemalan hospital. Despite sharing no connection to the country, he was secretly transported there after briefly being held up in a Minnesota immigration detention centre. Even with the current circumstances in focus, no deportation or public record of Leon being sent to Guatemala seems to exist.
The heart-breaking news emerged around the same time acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in an interview with CBS News that anyone found in the country illegally, irrespective of their criminal record (or even the lack thereof), would be arrested by his agents. On top of that, a new ICE memo disclosed this week that migrants could now be deported to “alternate countries,” not just their country of origin.
Luis Leon, on the other hand, was not living in the US unlawfully and had actually approached authorities to get the permanent resident card replaced after he lost it. It goes on to show that the 82-year-old was a law-abiding US resident, and yet, he and his family were dealt with this life-changing setback.