Family, friends fight for return of Frederick County man detained by ICE

Alexi Canas had a routine after work each day.

The father of eight would sit in the living room of the family’s Ballenger Creek house and watch movies. Often, the younger Canas children would return home from school to find the TV on — a sign that Alexi was there waiting for them.

For the past month, however, Alexi has not been home to greet his children. The last time they saw him was March 10, when he appeared in Frederick County Circuit Court to face a charge of driving on a suspended license.

On that day, Circuit Judge Scott Rolle ordered Alexi to spend two days in the Frederick County Adult Detention Center.

Alexi left the jail on March 12 — but instead of returning home, he was transferred into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which took him to Baltimore and initiated removal proceedings against him.

A notice to appear filed on March 11 alleges that Alexi, a native of El Salvador, entered the United States in May 1995 “without being admitted or paroled,” which refers to temporary permission to remain in the country.

The document, obtained by The Frederick News-Post, said Alexi was ordered to appear before an immigration judge in Baltimore on April 14.

Online records show that as of Monday, Alexi was being held at the Adams County Correctional Center in Natchez, Mississippi — hours away from his family in Frederick County, Maryland.

Diana Canas, Alexi’s 22-year-old daughter, said her family did not receive an official explanation as to why her father was being moved there.

“It was more him just telling me ‘they’re taking me here,’ and that’s that,” Diana said, referring to a phone conversation she had with her father while he was still in Baltimore.

Representatives of ICE did not respond to multiple requests for comment through phone and email last week and this week for this story.

QUESTIONS AT DETENTION CENTER

Katie Robine, a spokesperson for the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, wrote in an email last week that everyone who is processed into the Adult Detention Center is asked a series of 13 questions, two of which pertain to a person’s country of birth and country of citizenship.

“Anyone who answers anything other than the United States or one of the United States Territories is asked additional questions to determine removability by a Correctional [Officer] that is a Designated Immigration Officer through the 287(g) Program,” she wrote.

The federal 287(g) program allows ICE to train local law enforcement officers to assist with immigration enforcement. Only the corrections side of the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office participates in the 287(g) program.

Robine said Alexi was questioned by designated immigration officers within the Adult Detention Center during his stay there. The Frederick County Sheriff’s Office subsequently placed an immigration detainer on him, Robine confirmed.

According to online records, Alexi’s next hearing is scheduled for April 22. He will appear virtually in a Jena, Louisiana, immigration court before Judge Allan John-Baptiste, who is based in Fort Worth, Texas.

“It’s an extremely complicated and difficult legal landscape,” said Brandt Tingen, a friend of the Canas family.

“We’ve got Diana, his mom, his sisters and a handful of colleagues and people who know him in the community,” Tingen continued. “And we’re literally working eight to 14 hours a day each trying to figure out what the hell is going on and how to protect him.”

‘REALLY INVOLVED IN THE FAMILY’

Since his arrival in the U.S. three decades ago, Alexi has worked diligently to build a life for himself and his family, people who know him said.

Alexi is the owner and operator of AC Painting and Remodeling, a home improvement business serving the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. It was through his business that he first met Tingen, a real estate agent.

Over time, Tingen said, Alexi became close with many of the people who contracted with him. When Tingen’s fiancée unexpectedly died last year, he said Alexi stepped in without hesitation to help keep his business going.

“He’s helped me and so many other people in critical, severe life-changing moments, while having a family of eight,” Tingen said.

Tingen said Alexi typically works at least six days a week, sometimes in excess of 100 hours, to provide for his family.

Diana said Alexi has given her family “every single thing that we’ve ever needed from him.”

The eight Canas siblings, ranging in age from 8 to 22 years old, were all born and raised in Maryland. They moved to Frederick County three years ago with Alexi and their mother, who declined to be interviewed for this story.

“Even if he’s tired from work, he still takes time out of his day to come and hang out with us,” Diana said. “He’s really involved in the family, and it just kind of really sucks the situation we are in now.”

In Alexi’s absence, Diana has taken on many new responsibilities. In addition to working full-time as a receptionist in a medical office, she has been laboring to keep the family’s bills paid and her father’s business afloat.

Diana has also been collaborating with Tingen and others close to Alexi to put up a defense to allow him to remain in the U.S.

The process has been complicated by the need to find not just any immigration lawyer, but one who can practice in the district where Alexi is to be tried.

The friends of Alexi Canas have started a crowdfunding campaign to help his family pay their bills, including legal costs. It can be found at gofund.me/310e0630.

“They have intentionally made this extremely difficult,” Tingen said. “All told, it’s going to be tens of thousands of dollars just to get him his day in court for something that really shouldn’t have happened, and wouldn’t have happened in the last three decades.”

President Donald Trump has taken several steps to crack down on illegal immigration in the past few months, ramping up deportations and allowing ICE to operate in sensitive locations like schools and places of worship.

The White House says Trump has deported “more than 100,000 illegal migrants” since his return to office on Jan. 20.

In an interview in February, Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins told the News-Post that immigration officers are targeting “violent criminals,” “gang members” and people “that have criminal convictions, not just in this country, but countries where they came from.”

Online court records do not show any convictions for a violent crime in Maryland for Alexi. His only convictions that still stand are for traffic offenses. He was pardoned by the governor last year for misdemeanor cannabis possession, an offense dating back to 2003.

Diana said she and her father both recognize that he should not have been driving on a suspended license. But she said neither of them realized how severe the consequences could be.

“I think he just never imagined that it would be something that would kind of rip him away from his family,” Diana said. “I just want it to be known that he honestly is a really good person.”

During the past month, Diana said she has had conversations with some of her siblings about what to do if Alexi is not allowed to return home.

“I don’t think we like to bring it up too much. We try to keep hope,” Diana said.

“But we do know that if worst came to worst, we don’t think that we would all be able to uproot our lives here and go live in El Salvador with him, as much as we would want to be with him,” she continued.

Tingen pushed back against the idea that Alexi and people like him pose a danger to their communities, adding that Alexi is “already American” in the minds of everyone who knows him.

“He couldn’t hurt a fly. He’s never hurt anybody,” Tingen said. “If this is who we’re getting rid of, who are we keeping?”