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.
