A Filipina senior citizen who is a green card holder for at least 50 years in the United States was recently arrested and detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operatives upon her return from a vacation in the Philippines.

The family of Lewelyn Dixon, 64, are contesting what has been expected as a bid by the ICE to deport her to her country as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal and overstaying immigrants.

Dixon has been in the US for 50 years and had been given legal permanent status there. She works as a laboratory technician at the University of Washington.

ICE placed her under its custody immediately after disembarking from a the airplane from the Philippines last February.

She is reportedly being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.

Dixon is among the many Filipinos who have been rounded up by ICE and other immigration authorities tasked to enforce Trumps strict policy against overstaying and illegal foreigners.

So far, over 50,000 of these non-Americans are awaiting trial but are detained in various immigration facilities in the US.

According to Dixon’s lawyers, it was likely that US Customs and Border Protection had dug up a decades-old embezzlement conviction on her record and moved for her arrest as sooon as she returned from her trip to her native land.

Records of the said case indicated that Dizon pleaded guilty to the charge in 2000, thus, was ordered to pay restitution and spend 30 days in a halfway house.

She had apparently serviced the sentence and completed payment of the restitution.

Despite this court record, Dixon wwas still eligible for US citizenship but she kept her promise to her father to remain a Filipino citizen in order that she may be granted the right to own land and property in the Philippines.

Osorio noted that Dixon may not have been fully appraised of the risk she was taking.