Longtime Waltham resident Edvin Alvarez marks six months in ICE detention
Waltham business owner Edvin Alvarez has spent six months in the custody of federal immigration authorities. He faces the possibility of being deported if his legal appeals are eventually rejected.
Alvarez is a graduate of Waltham High School and owner of a local landscaping business. He was seized in Waltham without warning last New Year’s Eve by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Family members said at the time that Alvarez was in the United States legally with a federal Employment Authorization Document allowing him to work in the United States, and that he was working toward getting a permanent resident card and citizenship.
Alvarez came to the United States 35 years ago from Guatemala and has owned a landscaping business for 20 years. His family has used a GoFundMe campaign to raise nearly $25,000 of its goal of $26,000 to pay his legal fees.
According to updates on the GoFundMe site, Alvarez’s recent application for cancellation of his deportation proceedings via form 42B, which allows certain nonpermanent residents to avoid deportation and obtain a green card, was rejected because he hadn’t proven his deportation would result in extreme hardship to his family.
He also has filed for a writ of habeas corpus seeking a legal justification for his detention.
Alvarez has been transferred among detention centers around the country; he is currently being held in Texas, his family said.
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This is so wrong, so inhumane, so cruel. Everyday, some shareholder is making money off of the detention of innocent people. The United States currently holds approximately 60,000 to 70,000 people in immigration detention centers nationwide.The most recent official and tracking data highlights the scale of the system:
Current Population: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds over 60,000 individuals on any given day, with recent peak counts reaching between 66,000 and 73,000 depending on enforcement activity.
Demographics: Over 70% of those detained have no criminal convictions.
Location: Facilities are heavily concentrated, with Texas currently holding the most ICE detainees.
Private prison operators make hundreds of millions in profit from immigration detention centers, bringing in billions in total revenue. The industry is dominated by two massive for-profit corporations, both of which have seen massive revenue surges due to government contracts – our tax dollars at work.
The GEO Group: Earned record-breaking total revenues of $2.6 billion, with net incomes reaching approximately $295 million. Operating profits specifically from their Secure Services (detention) division range between 25% to 30%.
CoreCivic: Reported $2.2 billion in total revenue. They average roughly $165 per detainee per day across their facilities
This man is unjustly ripped away from his family, but as far as the government is concerned, there’s no “extreme hardship.” Really. There was a “promise” to deport “the worst of the worst.” Mr. Alvarez obviously does not fit that description. I hope he gets home soon with great legal representation. These shameful episodes that ruin people’s lives for no good reason need to end. The only way we can end them is to vote for people who have a more proportionate sense of fairness, justice, and compassion. Targeting people because of ethnicity and without legitimate cause is unjust and very anti-American. Immigration is what has made this country thrive, not the other way around.
Pretty sure there is much more to this story than being said. I don’t think Mr Alverez has been the most perfect law abiding citizen over the years. Might be time to go home and learn to behave first.
And you have evidence of his so-called non-law-abiding behavior? Or are you simply engaging in leaping to conclusions with slander? It’s for certain, and proved repeatedly, that ICE has leapt to conclusions to round up people to fill up private prisons.
Please tell us how we can donate to the family
Here is the GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/bring-edvin-alvarez-home-to-his-family