Confusion swirled around the fate of a Chilean resident of the US after the Department of Homeland Security called reports of his deportation to Guatemala a “hoax”.
On 18 July, the Morning Call newspaper of Allentown, Pennsylvania, reported that the family of the man, Luis Leon, said he was handcuffed after showing up at to immigration office on 20 June to report a lost green card. They said he was first sent to a detention facility in Minnesota, then to Guatemala, where they said a Chilean relative informed them he was in a hospital.
The report said Leon was 82 years old and had come to the US after being granted political asylum in 1987 after being tortured under the regime of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. It said in his nearly 40 years living in the US he spent his career working in a leather manufacturing plant, raised a family and had since retired.
DHS, however, denied in a statement that Leon had been deported and that there was no record of Leon having a green card appointment in Philadelphia on that date. The department also said that its only record of Leon entering the US “was from 2015 from Chile under the visa waiver program”.
The Guatemalan government also denied that Leon had been deported. In a statement, the Guatemalan Migration Institute said it coordinates with Ice on all deportations from the US and that no one matched Leon’s name, age or citizenship, according to the Associated Press.
The AP added that Guatemala agreed in February to receive people deported from the US who are from other Central American countries, but that its agreement does not extend to Chileans.
On Monday, Morning Call published a new story reflecting DHS and Guatemala’s claims, and noting that it “repeatedly requested information from Ice during its reporting; an Ice spokesperson previously refused to confirm details, including whether or not Leon was even at the Philadelphia office, and said Monday that Ice investigators were not able to contact the family”.
It added that Leon’s granddaughter, Nataly, who refused to provide her last name, said she had visited Leon in a hospital in Guatemala City, where she claimed he was being treated for pneumonia.
But the outlet also reported that a Chilean journalist, Jose Del Pino, said a doctor at the hospital in question had no record of him.
Del Pino also reportedly provided a copy of an alleged death certificate to the Morning Call for a man with the same name and date of birth who died in Santiago, Chile, in 2019. It added that Del Pino said Chilean citizens all have national identification numbers, and none matches another person with that name and birthday.
Late on Sunday her family issued a statement saying they would no longer speak to media and asked for privacy, and Leon’s granddaughter did not respond to the Morning Call’s further requests for comment on Monday.
The Guardian has approached Ice, the Chilean embassy in the US, the municipality of Allentown and various immigration organizations for comment. An attorney at Campos Firm said multiple immigration attorneys had tried to contact the family asking to represent them, but could not reach them.
