Demonstrators hold a rally and march to protest a recent increase of activity in the area by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on February 01, 2025 in Waukegan, Illinois. Scott Olson, Getty Images/AFP 

MANILA -- Has the US crackdown on immigrants affected green card holders, too?

Lewelyn Dixon, who immigrated from the Philippines to Hawaii 50 years ago, has been taken and detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to a report by Hawaii News Now. 

Her niece, Emily Cristobal, said Dixon was returning home to Seattle from a family trip to the Philippines when she was held by ICE.

“She was there for like a couple of weeks. And then she returned on Feb. 28. And she was stuck in customs,” she said. 

Dixon graduated from Farrington High School and has been working as a lab technician at the University of Washington. According to Hawaii News Now, she last renewed her green card in 2022.

“We haven’t officially been told why she’s being held. They just keep saying that they’re waiting for documents,” said Cristobal, who works as office manager for Hawaii State Representative Tina Grandinetti.

In an updated report by Newsweek, Dixon’s attorney, Benjamin Osorio, revealed that a decades-old conviction has triggered the current legal issue. “She has a single conviction from 2001 that has triggered the issue,” Osorio said in an email. He explained that Dixon was convicted of a non-violent embezzlement charge for which she received a sentence of 30 days in a halfway house and a $6,400 fine, but no jail or prison time.

According to Osorio, Dixon’s international travel is what activated the legal grounds for detention. “If she had not traveled, she would not be removable from the United States,” he said. Although Dixon had traveled internationally before without incident, her legal status made her vulnerable at ports of entry. Osorio noted that she is in a “weird legal position of being both inadmissible and eligible to naturalize.”

Non-citizens entering the U.S. can be classified as either “returning residents” or “arriving aliens,” the latter being subject to mandatory detention. Osorio explained that Dixon is classified as the latter and is therefore “not bond eligible,” though ICE could choose to parole her. “However, parole is pretty much dead these days,” he said.

Grandinetti meanwhile has been pushing a bill to provide legal representation for immigrants in Hawaii.

“The targeting of our immigrant community is not just something happening on our phones and TV screens,” Grandinetti said. “This is a reality that’s impacting our staff, our friends, our families and our loved ones.”

Dixon's reported detention comes amid an immigration crack down under the administration of US President Donald Trump.

But Gradinetti is using her platform to fight it.

“Folks in the United States are guaranteed the right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, but that applies only to criminal proceedings,” Grandinetti said. “Immigration proceedings are civil proceedings.”

Immigration attorneys said green card holders can be deported, for cause.

“Now we’re seeing more and more people who are in detention who are green card holders ... and it’s usually for because of prior convictions,” said Neribel Chardon, the senior staff attorney for The Legal Clinic.

Cristobal asserted her aunt has renewed her green card several times. She said if Dixon has a bad record, they would have found it by now.

“She had to undergo background checks to work in a state job in Washington, so that’s kind of the part of like -- the missing puzzle piece that we don’t understand,” she said.

Dixon’s earliest hearing date will be in July.

“Her life is here. Her life is in Washington and the US,” said Cristobal.

In January, the Philippine Embassy in the United States put up 24/7 hotlines for Filipinos there amid the implementation of Trump's crackdown on illegal immigrants. They also stressed that all Filipinos in the United States have rights regardless of their immigration status.

Trump began his second term in office with a series of announcements intended to drastically reduce the number of migrants entering the United States. 

He vowed to immediately halt "all illegal entry" and begin the process of deporting "millions and millions of criminal aliens."

READ: PH Embassy puts up hotlines amid Trump's immigration crackdown

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) earlier advised Filipinos in the United States to stay “low key” and work on legalizing their stay to avoid deportation amid the Trump administration’s fresh crackdown on illegal migrants.