Man from India who just wanted to go home sent to Alaska by ICE

After spending months detained at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Rakesh Rakesh decided to voluntarily self-deport to India, where he was born and raised. But instead of putting him on an Alaska Airlines flight to New York, where he would transfer to a flight to India, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent Rakesh to Sitka, Alaska.

KUOW's Kim Malcolm talked with Seattle Times immigration reporter Nina Shapiro about Rakesh's dilemma and how an Alaska Airlines pilot lent him a hand.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: Flight attendants told the ICE agents about their mistake, but they reportedly insisted Rakesh remain on the flight.

Nina Shapiro: On the plane, they're trying to figure out, what do we do now? The captain talks to Rakesh and explains what happened. Then, when they're in Alaska, the captain takes an interest in this gentleman, and actually books him a hotel room right next to his own.

Alaska Airlines gets involved. They pay for his meals. They rebook him back to Seattle at no charge, and then on to the itinerary he was supposed to be on, to New York and then on to India. But when he gets back to Seattle, ICE agents won't let him do that.

That is a part of the story that's so curious to me. Mr. Rakesh was taken back to the Tacoma detention facility. How did he respond?

Not well. He is freaking out at this point. He has been in the detention center for months. It's a very difficult place to be. It's essentially like a jail. There have been a lot of complaints about conditions. Finally, he is like, “I just want to get out of here.” Then, it turns out he's being sent to the most remote part of the U.S.

Then he finally gets back, and he is like, “OK, now I'm going to go home.” But in fact, he's going back to the same place. And he actually goes on hunger strike in an attempt to call attention to his plight.

You talked about the story with an immigration lawyer who met the Alaska Airlines captain who was at the Tacoma Detention Center to visit Mr. Rakesh, after ICE took Rakesh back into custody. What were some of his takeaways about the story?

The lawyer's first reaction upon hearing the story was, “This is crazy.” First, this whole flight SNAFU, but then the fact that he is re-detained, as the lawyer put it, at no fault of his own. He was trying to leave but instead winds up back in the detention center. He hadn't heard of something like this, but he did see it as emblematic of what he called “inefficiencies” that ICE sometimes displays.

He mentioned that there is this rhetoric since the president took office and has made it a point to say he wanted to detain as many people living illegally in the U.S. as possible and is going to ramp up deportations. And yet, the lawyer said you have people in the detention center who really want to get out of here, who are ready to go back to their country, and for one reason or the other, they can't leave. They're kind of stuck in the detention center.

And Mr. Rakesh, where is he now?

He did finally make it back to India. In the end, he spent about 16 more days in the detention center. ICE did finally arrange for his flight back home. I interviewed him several times and he's back on his family's farm.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.