Luis Leon, an 82-year-old man living in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was deported to Guatemala after being detained during an appointment in Philadelphia meant to renew his green card.
According to the local newspaper The Morning Call, cited by Mediaite, the man had gone to the immigration office with his wife on June 20 in hopes of replacing the document he had recently lost. But once there, two agents arrested him without any apparent explanation.
Originally from Chile, Leon immigrated to the United States in 1987. According to his family, he lived a quiet, retired life after raising four children and working for years in a leather factory. He had been granted political asylum after fleeing the Pinochet regime, his relatives told the local newspaper.
His wife, whose name has not been released, was also briefly detained at the center, where she was interrogated for nearly ten hours before being released.
Upon her release, she received no information about her husband’s whereabouts. In the days that followed, the family tried in vain to get answers from immigration authorities about where he had been taken and what condition he was in.
On July 9, the confusion reached a new level: an anonymous phone call informed Luis Leon’s wife that her husband had died in custody. The information turned out to be false.
According to testimony collected by The Morning Call, Luis Leon was first transferred to a detention center in Minnesota, before being sent to Guatemala, where he is now hospitalized. The exact reasons for his deportation and transfer to that country remain unclear. At this point, it is not known whether it was an administrative error.
A family member in Chile was eventually informed of his deportation. His granddaughter Nataly, quoted by The Morning Call, said the family was stunned to learn what had happened to her grandfather. She also requested that her last name not be published, fearing retaliation.
An ICE official confirmed that an investigation had been opened to clarify the circumstances of the case. However, the agency provided no additional details, according to Mediaite.
Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has reinforced his immigration policies. According to Mediaite, deportations have already targeted individuals sent to countries of which they are not nationals. The case of Luis Leon raises many questions about how ICE decisions are being implemented, especially concerning elderly, long-term U.S. residents.
“My whole family is suffering right now,” said Nataly, who condemned the cruelty with which her grandfather was treated by federal agents. The elderly man was deported to a country where he is not from and knows no one.
The family is currently working on procedures to bring him back. But it won’t be easy.
Luis suffers from several illnesses that require intensive medical care, according to his family.
