76-Year-Old Cancer Patient Detained by ICE During Citizenship Interview Reportedly Misses Treatments

A 76-year-old Philippine-born man, Loreto Javar, is spending his third month in US immigration custody in Tacoma, Washington, after being detained during a citizenship interview on 23 June, with his family saying the move has forced him to miss critical treatment for stage 4 prostate cancer.

Javar is a long-time green card holder who has lived in the United States since 1995 and worked for years in the hotel industry in Fife, Washington. He went to a routine naturalisation interview in Tukwila this summer, hoping to take the final step towards US citizenship.

Instead, federal immigration officers took him into custody on the spot, transferring him to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Tacoma, where he remains while his case drags on.

His daughter, Daisy, says the detention has already disrupted his care for advanced prostate cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

She said that her father has missed multiple oncology appointments while in custody and faces the loss of still more vital treatments after an immigration judge extended his case until 20 September. Speaking after that hearing, she was blunt about what she wanted: 'I want him out today.'

How the Case Against Loreto Javar Emerged

ICE officials cited what they say is a decades-old criminal conviction in the Philippines that should have disqualified Javar from entering the US nearly 30 years ago.

According to court documents, immigration authorities allege that Javar was involved in an altercation in the Philippines in the 1970s that left one person dead. Javar reportedly told US officials that he served about three years in prison there before being released on parole.

ICE now claims that he failed to disclose that conviction when he applied for a US visa in 1995. Jason Chudy, a spokesperson for ICE, said the omission would have made Javar ineligible for the visa in the first place. 'He is therefore ineligible to remain in the United States now,' Chudy told The Seattle Times.

In plain English, immigration prosecutors are effectively trying to unwind a life that has been lived in America for nearly three decades, on the basis of paperwork they say should have been flagged before Bill Clinton was even in office.

Cancer Treatment on Hold as Detention Drags On

The family's biggest worry is not the legal theory; it is whether Javar will be alive and strong enough to keep fighting by the time the court is done with him.

Daisy says that while her father is receiving some medication in detention, the structure of life inside has badly disrupted his normal medical routine.

She describes late meals that collide with his medicine schedule and a general lack of control over something as basic as when he can eat.

'It's always late,' she said of the facility's meal schedule, adding that he 'needs to be eating on time.' She acknowledged that the medication itself has been administered on schedule, but in her view, that hardly solves the problem.

Advocates share her frustration. Moe Cinco, of the migrant support group Tanggol Migrante Movement, said Javar has already missed two cancer appointments because of his detention and is now expected to miss a third.

The delay in his immigration case, Cinco said, means the 76-year-old will likely be unable to attend an oncology session scheduled for 4 September. 'He's been languishing in the detention centre and separated from his cancer treatment,' Cinco said, warning that the window to stabilise his health is not infinite.

Cinco says advocates are scrambling to secure Javar's release before that next appointment, arguing that keeping a gravely ill pensioner locked up over a paperwork allegation from the 1970s is not only excessive but reckless. It is the kind of stuff that makes even people who normally shrug at immigration headlines stop and look twice.

Families and Advocates Push Back on ICE Detention

It can be recalled that ICE has long defended its use of detention in cases involving past convictions, arguing that it is enforcing existing law, not targeting individuals at random. In this case, officials insist that Javar's alleged failure to disclose his history means he should never have been granted entry.

His family and supporters see something different. They are pressing for his immediate release on humanitarian grounds, arguing that his age and condition should trigger compassion, not incarceration. Javar's supporters have also turned their attention to the Philippine Consulate General in Seattle, urging diplomats to step in.

'I just want them to treat people humanely,' Daisy said, accusing US officers of grabbing people 'everywhere' without regard for their health. Cinco has been equally direct about what he views as diplomatic indifference. 'The consulate has a duty to protect their nationals. But they are not following through on that thus far,' he said.

A petition calling on Philippine officials to intervene had gathered more than 150 signatures by Monday 31 August, according to organisers.

The text of the petition is scathing, arguing that 'no national should have to beg their own government to defend them' and accusing Manila of relying on the labour and remittances of overseas Filipinos while failing to stand up for them when 'subjected to repression abroad.'

ICE, for its part, has not publicly addressed those humanitarian complaints in detail, focusing instead on its legal justification for detention. The agency has also not responded in the material provided to questions about whether alternative arrangements, such as supervised release, were considered given the seriousness of Javar's illness.

So, for now, a 76-year-old cancer patient sits in a detention block in Tacoma, his next immigration hearing weeks away, his next oncology appointment creeping closer by the day. Which clock runs out first is not a theoretical question for his family.