Family calls for release of woman legally in U.S. for 50 years and now detained by ICE
Lewelyn Dixon, 64, who's had legal permanent status in the U.S. for 50 years, was arrested at the airport in Seattle and placed into ICE custody after coming back from a trip to her native Philippines in late February. She has a hearing scheduled for July, but her loved ones are calling for her release, telling NBC News that she is the glue that holds the family together.
'She's always been our go-to,' said Dixon's niece Lani Madriaga, who described her as a mother figure. 'She's always been that.'
ICE did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.
Dixon is being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, Madriaga said, where she's been socializing with the other detainees, translating and helping them communicate with their attorneys amid the wait before her hearing.
Dixon's attorney, Benjamin Osorio, said that U.S. Customs and Border Protection likely spotted a decades-old embezzlement conviction on her record upon her return, which prompted the detention. Dixon, who pleaded guilty to the nonviolent offense in 2000, was ordered to pay restitution and spend 30 days in a halfway house, court documents show. In 2019, she finished paying restitution.
Dixon had been a vault teller and operations supervisor at Washington Mutual Bank, where she 'removed cash from the vault on eight separate occasions' without the bank's authorization, according to her plea agreement. In total, she removed $6,460.
Dixon never told the family about the conviction, Madriaga said, who called it her aunt's 'darkest secret.'
'If she hadn't traveled, it wouldn't have triggered this,' Osorio said.
And though Dixon has also long been eligible for U.S. citizenship, Osorio said, she promised her father that she would keep her Filipino status so that she could retain property and land back in the Philippines.
'She probably did not understand the risk,' Osorio said. 'Otherwise, she probably would have … naturalized before she traveled.'Dixon came to the U.S. when she was 14, immediately helping Madriaga and her siblings, who are also immigrants, settle into life in their new country.
'We stayed together. We slept in the same room. We had a bunk bed and an extra bed, and we stayed in that room during our school years,' Madriaga, 59, said. 'She was very independent, and she was a good role model, making sure to have hard earned work.'
Later on, when Madriaga's sister went through a divorce, becoming a single mom, Dixon moved to Washington state so she could be there for the children and to pitch in with rent. Madriaga went through her own divorce years later and said Dixon was also there to help with the kids.
'That was hard. She made sure she took care of my youngest one, because she was still a minor,' Madriaga said. 'She's like a second mom to her.'
At the lab, Dixon is a dedicated worker, Madriaga said. She had even scheduled herself to work a shift the night she was to get off the flight, she added. Dixon was on the cusp of her 10-year anniversary at work, during which her pension would vest. Her family members are now worried she'll lose both her job and her pension after being away for so long.
Susan Gregg, a spokesperson at UW Medicine, would not elaborate on Dixon's case, but said that she had worked as a lab technician at the hospital since 2015.
'UW Medicine is dedicated to the well-being of all employees and hopes Lewelyn receives due process in a timely manner,' Gregg said.
Madriaga said that the family is speaking out for their aunt and also hoping to help others protect themselves from a similar fate.
'To the people who avoided becoming a citizen like my aunt, who thought that she was protected: No. Go get your citizenship,' Madriaga said.This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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Chicago Tribune
24 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago-area children get deportation letters: Leave or ‘the federal government will find you'
Thirteen-year-old Xally Morales stared blankly at a letter she received from the Department of Homeland Security last month. She could not read the dozens of lines in English addressed to her. She arrived in the country from Mexico a little over seven months ago, crossing the southern border in search of safety. Xally knows very little English. 'They say I have to leave the country immediately,' the young teen whispered in Spanish, barely meeting anyone's eyes at a Chicago law firm on a recent Friday afternoon. No explanation. No hearing. And no time. The night she received the letter, she said, the family went into hiding after her older sister translated the letter for her. 'Trump wants me to go back to Mexico. But how can I do that alone?' Xally told the Tribune. 'I'm scared ICE will come for me.' Xally is one of at least 12 children in the Waukegan area — all unaccompanied minors from Mexico — who received sudden deportation letters from DHS last month, according to advocates. All of the girls legally entered the country within the past year under humanitarian parole as unaccompanied minors and were later reunited with undocumented parents or other family already living in the U.S. But despite that reunification, the girls are unable to be legally represented by their parents in immigration court due to the way they entered the country. Immigration advocates warn that these cases are becoming more common, with a growing number of children now receiving letters from DHS ending their humanitarian parole. They say this could signal a troubling shift under the Trump administration: a move to strip asylum protections from children, even those with pending claims, and accelerate the deportation of minors without due process. 'Do not attempt to unlawfully remain in the United States — the Federal Government will find you,' the June 20 letter reads. Unless their families can find and afford scarce legal representation, the children could be at risk of getting detained or could be forced to face a judge alone, advocates and attorneys said. But an assistant secretary of DHS, Tricia McLaughlin, in an emailed statement to the Tribune said that 'accusations that ICE is 'targeting' children are FALSE and an attempt to demonize law enforcement.' McLaughlin added that Immigration and Customs Enforcement 'does not 'target' children nor does it deport children.' The agency also does not separate families, she said in the statement. Instead, 'ICE asks mothers if they want to be removed with their children or if the child should be placed with someone safe whom the parent designates.' But questions regarding why letters are being sent to unaccompanied minors, like Xally, and what the protocol is to deport them, as stated in the letter, were left unanswered. Sitting next to her mother in the law office that afternoon, she held her hand tight. Since receiving the letter, the two had been staying at a Waukegan church because they were afraid that ICE agents would suddenly show up to their home and take Xally. Her mother, Francisca Petra Guzman, 48, arrived in the country in January, also as an asylum-seeker. The two, she said, ran away from domestic abuse and death threats. But churches are no longer a safe refuge. Instead, the pastor of the church, longtime activist Julie Contreras, escorted the mother and daughter to meet with a group of attorneys who could help them understand their options: return to the country they fled, possibly together to avoid detention, or remain in the U.S. for safety. 'As much as I tried, I couldn't provide for Xally in Mexico. I couldn't keep her safe,' Guzman said. 'Then my health started to decline. We had no other option than to come here.' Shortly after President Donald Trump took office, DHS began widely sending these letters. 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When he learned that Xally and other children were taking sanctuary at a Waukegan church after getting the letters, he offered to meet with them, attempting to ease their anxiety and fear. 'The reality is that under this administration, no one is safe anywhere. They (immigration authorities) are unpredictable and desperate to meet a quota even if it means detaining a child,' Antia said. 'This administration doesn't care whether you are in the hospital, whether you are in the courthouse, whether you are in your home, definitely not at church.' While Xally and her mother didn't leave the law office with clear answers about their future, they said they felt a small sense of hope. The attorneys said they would explore legal options to help Xally stay in the country, or at the very least, protect her from detention. They returned to the church, packed their bags and went home. The fear, however, lingers more than ever. Every morning, Xally wakes up wondering if agents will show up at her door the way they have been showing up to other homes in Waukegan and other cities near Chicago. The girl and her mother avoid going out altogether, spending most days watching TV, doing her nails, writing or reading. 'When I begin to feel anxious, I pray,' Xally said as she scrolled though a photo of her late father on her cellphone background. Her nails are painted in bright pink polish and glitter. She painted them while she was staying at the church with other children who received similar letters from DHS. She said she is used to living in fear since she lived in Mexico. Only briefly after arriving did she think her life would take a turn for the best. Xally still remembers the day she first saw Lake Michigan after arriving in the Chicago area. It was Sept. 19 of last year. Before that, she had spent nearly a month in a Texas federal facility run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, surrounded by other children who, like her, had crossed the southern border seeking asylum. 'More than scared, I was nervous and excited,' Xally said. She was eager to leave behind a life marked by pain and instability after her father died from COVID over five years ago. When her mother remarried, they found themselves trapped in an abusive household, her mother recalled. As the threats heightened, her mother desperately searched for a way to protect her youngest daughter. At first, she left Xally with her elderly grandmother in their impoverished Mexican hometown. But soon, Guzman realized her best option was to send Xally to the United States, where her older sisters — both U.S.-born — lived. Guzman herself had lived in the U.S. unauthorized as a teenager. It was where she met Xally's father. The couple decided to return to Mexico when Xally's grandfather was on his deathbed and they wanted to see one last time. Shortly after, Xally was born. With the help of Contreras, founder of United Giving Hope, an organization supporting immigrant families in suburban Illinois, Xally was granted humanitarian parole as an unaccompanied minor and successfully reunited with her older sisters in Waukegan. 'It was a new start for a young girl with big dreams,' Contreras said. 'She arrived at a place of safety every child deserves.' Over the past decade, Contreras has helped hundreds of children and mothers legally cross the southern border seeking asylum, assisting with paperwork and connecting them to attorneys to support their cases. But now, about a dozen of those children, including Xally, have received letters from DHS ordering them to leave the country. 'This is deeply concerning and alarming,' Contreras said. 'These children are not the criminals Trump claimed ICE would target. They are victims of human rights violations and are being terrorized. Even if ICE doesn't come for them immediately, the threat alone causes severe psychological trauma.' While Xally and her mother choose to endure the uncertainty, others cannot bear it and have opted to return to their native towns. Even when it means facing danger, Contreras said. Sixteen-year-old Daneli Mendez, who arrived in the Chicago area last October, decided to go back to her native Veracruz, Mexico. After staying at the church with Contreras for nearly a week, terrified that ICE would arrive and arrest her, Daneli told her family she would rather return voluntarily than risk detention. The girl has heard of others being detained in detention centers in poor conditions for undetermined amounts of time. Most recently, a 15-year-old Mexican boy was reportedly arrested by federal authorities and taken to Alligator Alcatraz, a notorious detention facility in Florida. On July 5, just a day after Independence Day, Contreras escorted Daneli to O'Hare International Airport and watched as the young girl boarded a flight back to the country she once fled. 'It's heartbreaking to see their dreams shattered. But this is about more than dreams, it's about their safety,' Contreras said. Daneli returned with nothing but a small backpack, a few English words she had learned, and a broken heart, leaving her family behind once again. 'She would much rather do that than be detained and deported,' Contreras said. Under U.S. immigration law, unaccompanied minors, children under 18 who arrive at the border without a parent or legal guardian, are supposed to receive special protections. They are typically placed under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and granted humanitarian parole while their cases are processed. But in recent months, immigration advocates and attorneys say the system is being quietly dismantled. 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That same law requires safe repatriation of the children. But Casas is skeptical of that. Even if the funding has been restored, the demand can't keep up. In April, more than 8,300 children ages 11 and under were ordered deported by immigration courts. That is the highest number for that age group in any month since tracking began over 35 years ago, according to court data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, as first reported by The Independent. Since Trump took office in January, judges have ordered the removal of over 53,000 immigrant children, according to the data collected. Most of those children are elementary school age or younger. Approximately 15,000 were under the age of 4, and another 20,000 were between 4 and 11 years old. Teenagers have also been affected, with 17,000 ordered deported, though that number is still below the peak seen in 2020, during Trump's first term. Some of the children are unaccompanied minors, like Xally and Daneli, but it's unclear how many, since immigration authorities stopped tracking that data years ago. In the Chicago area, it's hard to know how many children are currently being detained or deported, due to gaps in the available data. But according to data obtained by the Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Tribune, at least 16 minors were deported or left the U.S. after being booked in Chicago-area ICE detention centers during Trump's first 150 days back in office. Another seven cases are still pending. If all seven of those cases result in deportation, that would bring the total to 23 minors — about the same number as were deported in the final 150 days of the Biden administration. But the latest available ICE data doesn't capture any efforts since late June. When Xally learned that Daneli had returned home, she panicked. The two girls had spent a few nights at the church, confiding in each other the fear that few other young girls would understand. 'Would I have to do that too?' she asked herself. 'I don't want to. I like school here, I want to go back after summer break.' Xally is enrolled at Robert Abbott Middle School in Waukegan, where she would enter eighth grade if she stays in the country. Meanwhile, her summer has been shadowed by fear and uncertainty. Just days after receiving the letter, her family quietly marked her 13th birthday — no guests, no music, no gifts. She can't even go anymore to the beach, a place that once felt like the freedom and safety she and her mother had desperately sought after being released from federal custody.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
200 Marines deploy to Florida as Pentagon approves more support to ICE
Two hundred Marines are deploying to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida, U.S. Northern Command announced. The Marines from Marine Support Squadron 272, Marine Corps Air Station New River, North Carolina, are part of the 700 troops mobilized by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to provide logistical support to Department of Homeland Security operations after the agency requested assistance May 9. Those 700 troops will include active duty, National Guard and Reserve forces under Title 10 authority. The Marines traveling to Florida will be the first wave of NORTHCOM's mobilization to assist with 'critical administrative and logistical capabilities at locations as directed by ICE,' according to a Thursday release. Other troops will be deployed to Texas and Louisiana. The support requested by DHS includes tasks related to transportation, logistics and administrative functions. The Marines are not authorized to make arrests or carry out law enforcement functions. 'Their roles will focus on administrative and logistical tasks, and they are specifically prohibited from direct contact with individuals in ICE custody or involvement in any aspect of the custody chain,' according to the release. The use of military personnel to provide logistical support for law enforcement agencies has been standard practice for decades. As the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin noted in 1991: 'Contrary to what many police officers believe, the Posse Comitatus Act permits civilian law enforcement agencies to seek military assistance under some specific circumstances.' Typical logistical support activities in support of law enforcement regularly performed by National Guard units, for example, can include 'training, technical support, services, intelligence analysis, surveillance, the installation of communications towers, permanent and temporary vehicle barriers, and pedestrian fences,' according to a 2010 report. The mobilization of the additional 700 troops comes at a time when the Defense Department is ramping up military involvement in border security, with four military zones recently created at the southern border in Texas and Arizona to halt illegal migration and narcotics trafficking. Pentagon creates new military border zone in Arizona Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell noted last week that 8,500 military personnel assigned to Joint Task Force Southern Border have conducted over 3,500 patrols, including in cooperation with Mexican military forces. Additionally, he said Marines have 'supported more than 170 missions in over 130 separate locations from nine federal agencies,' including DHS and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. NORTHCOM has not specified the location in Florida where the Marines will deploy and has not provided details of logistical duties they are being assigned. While it has been speculated they could deploy to provide support at Alligator Alcatraz — a newly opened detainment facility administered by ICE in the Florida Everglades — that has not been confirmed. NORTHCOM refused Monday to provide more specifics about the deployment. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
7 hours ago
- New York Post
‘Monster' illegal immigrant accused of decapitating woman nabbed by ICE after judge set him free three months ago
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