A woman who has lived in the United States for more than fifty years and is a green card holder is being held in ICE detention in Tacoma.
Lewelyn Dixon was detained after a trip home to the Philippines at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in late February.
Dixon lives in Edgewood in Pierce County and works as a lab technician at UW Medicine.
Her family believes a nonviolent criminal conviction more than two decades ago triggered the response.
“She sounded very scared,” said Dixon’s niece, Melania Madriaga. “She just wants to get out.”
Madriaga said the 2001 embezzlement conviction has never caused any issues before. In fact, she said the family was unaware of it until this incident.
“They’ve flown multiple times international with no issues whatsoever,” she said. “She renewed her green card twice. She was able to obtain a job position.”
Dixon’s attorney, Benjamin Osorio, said she received no active jail time and has had no other convictions since then. Osorio said the crime can be considered one of “moral turpitude.” An individual must have two of those crimes on record to trigger a removal from the U.S., he said, but only one to be denied entry to the country.
“So if she had not traveled, she would have had no issue,” Osorio said.
Madriaga said the family only recently learned that Dixon was not a U.S. citizen.
She said Dixon had declined to naturalize because she had promised her father she would maintain her citizenship in the Philippines to monitor family property. Years ago, Madriaga said, she would not have legally been able to maintain both.
KIRO 7 spoke to two independent immigration attorneys to find out how typical it is for green card holders to be detained over these kinds of circumstances.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) always determines whether an individual with a green card who is re-entering the U.S. after a trip abroad is still ‘admissible,’” wrote attorney Brandon Gillin in a statement. “Certain criminal convictions can render an individual inadmissible. That is typical. The difference nowadays is that CBP is taking a firmer stance and exercising greater scrutiny to individuals with old convictions or even charges not resulting in convictions where the crime is arguably one that would result in an inadmissibility determination. The administration has been clear about that change.”
Eryne Walvekar, an immigration attorney with Fisher Phillips, weighed in too.
“We’re seeing lately, things that maybe were not an issue 20, 30 years ago,” she said.
Walvekar said this could be due to different agencies speaking to one another more frequently, as well as instances in which laws have changed. In these cases, she said it is possible that crimes that previously were not classified as crimes involving moral turpitude have been reclassified.
“In general, I’ve been telling clients if they do have any specific reasons that they’re concerned, any specific issues in the past, like criminal convictions, prior immigration violations, it’s a good idea to be very cautious about travel,” she said.
She advised green card holders without these issues to not panic.
“There’s not a widespread concern about permanent residents, people with green cards, traveling, if they don’t have any of those concerns,” Walvekar said.
Osorio is urging his clients to get naturalized immediately.
He points to marijuana as an example.
“Most people don’t understand, especially in a world where marijuana has been legalized all over the place,” he said. “A misdemeanor marijuana conviction from 25 years ago could trigger the same exact thing. It’s a bar to admissibility.”
Osorio believes Dixon may have a fairly easy path to relief, and be eligible to naturalize, once her case is heard in court.
Dixon is not eligible for bond, according to Osorio, so she will be held in detention until her case is heard in July.
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