(The Hill) – The Guatemalan government says it has no records that an 82-year-old Chilean man was deported to the Central American country, contrary to claims from his family in Pennsylvania.
The Morning Call of Allentown, Pa., reported that Luis Leon, who is a legal permanent resident of the U.S., told his family that he was hospitalized with pneumonia in Guatemala after he was arrested at a Philadelphia immigration office while trying to replace his green card.
“He’s really traumatized right now,” the man’s granddaughter, Nataly, told the Pennsylvania outlet after the family reportedly tracked him down at a Guatemala City hospital over the weekend.
Nataly, whose surname was not reported, said the family had not heard from Leon since June 20, when he went to replace his lost green card in Philadelphia. His wife, who was with him at the immigration office, was detained for several hours before she was released, but Leon’s whereabouts had been a mystery, Nataly told the outlet.
But the Guatemalan Migration Institute, which works with U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) on deportations to the country, told The Associated Press in a statement that it had no record of anyone matching Leon’s name, age or citizenship among the U.S. deportees sent there. The Institute didn’t respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to The Hill’s requests for an update on Leon’s situation, but ICE told the Morning Call that it was looking into the circumstances and the family’s claims.
Nataly told the outlet that her grandfather, who received asylum in the U.S. after fleeing Chile in 1987, doesn’t plan to return to Pennsylvania.
The Trump administration, as part of its sweeping immigration crackdown and deportation efforts, has sent migrants to countries beyond their home nations. Guatemala agreed earlier this year to accept deportees from other Central American countries.
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