76-year-old cancer patient detained by ICE during citizenship interview, misses treatments
Loreto Javar, a 76-year-old Filipino national and green card holder who has lived in Fife, Washington since 1995, was detained by ICE while attending his U.S. citizenship interview in Tukwila. A retired hotel worker who raised his family in the U.S. and had renewed his residency multiple times without issue, Javar has stage 4 prostate cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and requires multiple daily medications. ICE alleges he failed to disclose a decades-old conviction related to a fatal altercation in the Philippines when he applied for his visa in 1995, though his daughter, Daisy Javar, says he has no U.S. criminal record. He has been held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma for more than two months, missing oncology appointments due to delayed meals disrupting his medication schedule, and has developed a blood clot. Advocates with the Tanggol Migrante Movement have pressed the Philippine consulate in Seattle and pushed for his compassionate release, gathering more than 150 petition signatures. An immigration judge extended his case to September 20, which his daughter said will cause him to miss another cancer treatment appointment.




























