Green card holder, 76, with Stage 4 cancer held in Tacoma ICE facility

Loreto Javar, a green card holder who’s lived in the United States for over three decades and is being treated for Stage 4 prostate cancer, has been held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma for more than two months.

A 76-year-old retired hotel worker who lives in Fife with his wife and daughter, Javar was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials June 23 during an interview for his U.S. citizenship application in Tukwila. He was receiving ongoing cancer treatment when he was taken into ICE custody, his family said, and has missed several medical appointments since his arrest.

Family members and community supporters are seeking Javar’s immediate release and demanding he receive proper medical care while living at home. Javar’s immigration court master calendar hearing, a preliminary hearing similar to an arraignment in criminal court, is scheduled for Monday.

In documents filed in immigration court, federal officials allege Javar was involved in an altercation in the 1970s in the Philippines that left one person dead. Javar told immigration officials at the time of his June arrest he had served about three years in jail in the Philippines and was released on parole, according to court documents.

His daughter Daisy Javar said the arrest was shocking. Her father has no criminal history in the U.S., she said, and had applied for U.S. citizenship in November because he was hoping to more easily visit the Philippines now that he is retired.

Javar has renewed his green card multiple times since moving to the U.S. in 1995 without issue, she said, most recently in December. He never told his children about the conviction before his detention, Daisy Javar said.

“He’s been following all the rules, paying his taxes, everything,” Daisy Javar said.

ICE officials say they arrested Javar because he did not disclose a criminal conviction in the Philippines when he applied for a visa to move to the U.S. in 1995 to join his father, who was already living in the country as a U.S. citizen, according to ICE spokesperson Jason Chudy. That disclosure would have made him inadmissible at the time of his original application, he said.

“He is therefore ineligible to remain in the United States now,” Chudy said in an email. He did not specify what the criminal conviction was for.

Javar’s family believes the Philippine government may have given records to U.S. immigration officials that led to his citizenship application being flagged, but it’s unclear what those documents contain. Javar’s family and legal team are working to obtain any information about his old case, but the court records from over half-century ago are challenging to locate.

Organizers with Tanggol Migrante Movement WA, a group supporting Filipino migrants and families advocating for Javar’s release, say his detention at the jail-like facility impedes his access to quality healthcare.