Man Who Filed Petition For Release Deported

Israel Arrascue, a man who had been detained at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, was deported to Peru on February 28, according to Maru Mora-Villapando, of the immigrant advocacy organization La Resistencia.

Arrascue had filed a petition for release after new DHS guidelines were implemented last fall. His petition was denied in December.  

Mora-Villapando expressed concern when Arrascue was first told he would be deported in mid-February. Arrascue’s teenage daughter has been documented as having severe depression linked to her father’s incarceration. 

“He’s really afraid, his family is devastated by this. And we’ve been trying a lot of different things,” Mora-Villapando says.

La Resistencia had reached out to multiple congressional offices in attempts to have lawmakers ask on Arrascue’s behalf for him to stay.

Palmira Figueroa of Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s office, one of the elected officials La Resistencia had contacted, confirmed Arrascue’s deportation.

ICE officials contacted prior to Arrascue’s deportation, when he was first told he would be removed from the country, said they could not comment until there was a final order of removal. 

According to ICE, Arrascue was detained  after serving jail time for “communicating with a minor for immoral purposes, and patronizing a prostitute,” after agreeing to make payments for sexual intercourse with a 16-year old prostitute, who was actually an undercover police officer.