NEWSWEEK
Lewelyn Dixon, a green card holder who immigrated to the United States from the Philippines five decades ago, is being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington state, her niece Emily Cristobal told Newsweek via email on Saturday.
Newsweek has reached out ICE for comment and confirmation via email on Saturday.
Why It Matters
Dixon’s reported detention comes amid an immigration crack down under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, a key campaign promise that received widespread backing from his Republican base and others. While most Democrats oppose Trump’s approach, many agree on the need for immigration reform.
Trump has said that most detentions and deportations would target individuals with criminal records. However, in recent weeks, there have been multiple reports of people with valid documentation and no criminal convictions being detained for deportation.
What To Know
Cristobal told Newsweek that her 64-year-old aunt, who she calls “Aunty Lyn,” was “first detained by Customs Border Patrol on February 28 and was being held at SEA-TAC [Seattle-Tacoma International] airport.” She was returning from a trip to the Philippines. Dixon immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines when she was 14.
It is not clear when Dixon’s green card was last renewed.
On March 2, Dixon was “transferred to the Northwest ICE Detention Facility.” The Northwest ICE Processing Center (NWIPC), which is privately owned by the GEO Group, holds over 1,500 detainees, and has been open since 2004.
Newsweek was able to locate Dixon’s information in the ICE Detainee Locator database, which confirmed she was being held at the ICE site.
Cristobal said her family has not “been informed of anything by ICE,” relating to the reasoning for her aunt’s detention. She said members of her family have visited Dixon at the center.
Dixon’s lawyer, Benjamin Osorio, told Newsweek in an email on Sunday that “she has a single conviction from 2001 that has triggered the issue.” Newsweek has followed up to inquire more about the conviction.
“She has traveled before and it not been an issue because she is in a weird legal position of being both inadmissible and eligible to naturalize. So before, this was not the type of thing that you would typically see a 64-year-old woman get detained,” Osorio said.
He explained that noncitizens at ports of entry, which include airports, can be classified as a “returning resident” or an “arriving alien,” which are “subject to mandatory detention.” He added that Dixon is “not bond eligible, but ICE could choose to parole her. However, parole is pretty much dead these days.”
Meanwhile, Cristobal works as an office manager for Hawaii state Representative Tina Nakada Grandinetti. On Friday, the state legislator spoke in support of a local immigration-related bill and highlighted Dixon’s story.
Speaking in support of SB816, to establish a program to provide legal representation for individuals facing immigration-related court proceedings, Grandinetti said Dixon “is a Green Card holder, a permanent resident who is legally allowed to live in the United States.”
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) says that a green card holder has the right to live permanently in the U.S. provided they do not commit any actions that “would make you removable under immigration law.” This includes breaking laws and not filing taxes…
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