Horror Stories On The Immigration Front

by Emmanuel S. Tipon, Esq.

Here are some headlines on the immigration front.

“Lewelyn Dixon, UW lab technician, held in Tacoma ICE detention center.” – Seattle Times, March 24, 2025.

“Family calls for release of woman legally in U.S. for 50 years and now detained by ICE.” – NBC News, March 26, 2025.

“Teachers from Philippines detained during immigration raid.” Hawaii News Now, May 7, 2025.

“He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention Center.” – USA TODAY, March 16, 2025.

“Trump-Voting Parents ‘Feel Betrayed’ After ICE Agents Detain Their Son.” – Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 6, 2025.

We have received calls asking if it is safe to travel to the Philippines. You do not have to travel to the Philippines. You can be in the United States, like the teachers in Maui, and still encounter ICE.

I have been asked a question like this: I am a green card holder. I have not committed any crime, not even a traffic violation. I have not violated any immigration law. Can I go abroad and come back without any problem?

The very fact that you call a lawyer asking that question indicates that you are not sure that you are clean.

The case of the Filipino teachers
According to Hawaii News Now, on May 6, a group of teachers from the Philippines who were working legally in Hawaii on a J-1 visa were detained and questioned by Immigration and Customs agents in Kahului, Maui.

A J-1 visa is an exchange visitor program visa. I know this because in 1960, I first came to the U.S. on a J-1 visa when I went to study at Yale Law School on a Fulbright-Smith Mundt scholarship. The J-1 visa holder is required to go back home after graduating.

There are about 100 Filipino J-1 visa holders who were recruited by the Hawaii State Department of Education to teach in Hawaii because there is a shortage of teachers in the public schools.

I met at least three of them for lunch at Merriman’s. They did not want to go back home and were looking for husbands. I told them: “Don’t look at me.”

The teachers were awakened by men dressed in black holding guns.

This can be very scary.

One day during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, Japanese soldiers with guns and fixed bayonets entered all the homes in our neighborhood in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, shouting “Kura, kura.”

We ran outside and saw our neighbors in the street. We learned later from a Filipino collaborator that the Japanese were looking for guerrillas. The Japanese must have been paranoid since their headquarters were in the Central Elementary School, one block from our home. This “raid,” as we called it, happened more than once.

A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said that they were executing a federal search warrant in Maui related to an immigration investigation. All the teachers are safe and accounted for.

Senator Mazie Hirono denounced the operation on the Senate floor, reportedly saying: “Despite these teachers being here legally in our country, the teachers were detained by Homeland Security and interrogated before being allowed to go about their business. That is called terrorizing people, plain and simple.”

Senator Brian Schatz reportedly issued a statement: “This is racial profiling and a shameful abuse of power. Our teachers, visitors and neighbors deserve dignity and safety not fear of arbitrary harassment.”

The case of the Filipino green card holder
Lewelyn Dixon, 64, is a Filipina who came to the U.S. about 50 years ago and lived in Hawaii for some time.

She graduated from Farrington High School. She later moved to Washington state, where she works as a lab technician at the University of Washington.

She was detained by ICE on February 28, 2025, at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after returning from a trip to the Philippines. She is being detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington. She has a court hearing in July.

Dixon, according to an NBC News report, had been a vault teller and operations supervisor at Washington Mutual Bank. In 2000, she allegedly “removed cash from the vault on eight separate occasions,” totaling $6,460 without the bank’s authorization, as stated in her plea agreement.

She was ordered to pay restitution and spend 30 days in confinement at the Pioneer Fellowship House, a halfway house. In July 2019, she finished paying restitution. Dixon never told her family about the conviction.

That conviction has not prevented Dixon from traveling in the past to the Philippines and Turkey. But it is different now.

According to Melania Madriaga, Dixon’s niece, “We’re hanging on. She’s hanging on. This motto we have: Focus on what you can control.”

He voted for Trump. Now his wife sits in an ICE detention center
Can you imagine your beautiful wife being held in an ICE detention center?

Bradley Bartell, a U.S. citizen, and Camilla Munoz, a citizen of Peru, met in the U.S. through mutual friends. They married after two years, were saving to buy a home, and have kids.

In February 2025, after honeymooning in Puerto Rico, an immigration agent pulled Munoz aside at the airport and asked: “Are you an American citizen?”

She said no, she was from Peru. She had a U.S. visa but had overstayed. They had applied for a green card.

Before immigration agents led her away, she took off her wedding ring and shoved it into her backpack, and gave it to Bartell. He shook as he watched her disappear.

“If an individual is overstaying their visa, they are therefore an illegal immigrant residing in this country, and they are subject to deportation,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a January news conference.

ATTY. EMMANUEL S. TIPON was a Fulbright and Smith-Mundt scholar to Yale Law School where he was awarded a Master of Laws degree specializing in Constitutional Law. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines. He placed third in the 1955 bar examinations. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, New York, and the Philippines. He practices federal law, with emphasis on constitutional issues, immigration law, and appellate federal criminal defense. He was the Dean and a Professor of Law of the College of Law, Northwestern University, Philippines. He has written law books and legal articles for the world’s most prestigious legal publishers including Thomson West and Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co. and writes columns for newspapers. He wrote the case notes and annotations for the entire Immigration and Nationality Act published by The Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co. and Bancroft-Whitney Co. (now Thomson Reuters). He wrote the best-seller “Winning by Knowing Your Election Laws.” Atty. Tipon was born in Laoag City, Philippines. Cell Phone (808) 225-2645. E-Mail: attorneytipon@gmail.com filamlaw@yahoo.com. Website: https://www.tiponimmigrationguide.com

The information provided in this article is for general information only. It is not legal advice. Publication of this information is not intended to create, and receipt by you or reading by you does not establish or constitute an attorney-client relationship.