Federal immigration agents made a sweep of arrests in Key West over the weekend — including the controversial detention of a father of a U.S. Navy sailor deployed in the Middle East.
Saturday morning, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Manuel Aviles, an undocumented immigrant from Nicaragua. His son Joshua Aviles is serving on the U.S. aircraft carrier Lincoln, which just left waters near Iran.
On Facebook, Joshua Aviles wrote: “This is heartbreaking for me…knowing my father is … possibly being treated like a criminal.”
READ MORE: Florida Keys activists rally against 'oppressive' tactics by federal immigration agents
Heather Slivko-Bathurst, a director at the nonprofit Key West Immigrant Support Network, told WLRN: “I’m sure the officers that took the father were not aware of who his son is. And even if he shared that detail with them, I don’t think it would have mattered.
"I think people right now are seen by federal immigration agents as just quotas they need to fill,” Slivko-Bathurst said.
The Homeland Security Department confirmed to WLRN the elder Aviles is in federal custody pending deportation, despite his asylum application.
It added: “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws.”
The elder Aviles arrived in the U.S. two decades ago and worked as a handyman in Key West. WLRN has not been able to determine if he entered the country illegally or on a legal visa that he later overstayed.
Family members told the Associated Press he was taking his car to a mechanic shop on Saturday when he was pulled over and detained.
Slivko-Bathurst said her group confirmed 28 migrants were arrested in Key West over the weekend, including a Haitian migrant who had Temporary Protected Status (TPS) until the Trump administration canceled it this month.
“Once again we are experiencing immigration enforcement upheaval," she said, "because it’s so easy for them to come on our island for a 24-, 48-hour period" and make sweeps.
Meanwhile, conditions on the U.S.S. Lincoln, the aircraft carrier Joshua Aviles serves on, have been widely criticized as substandard. The Trump administration denies it.
