Alaska
Alaskan restaurant’s 100% tip option appalls vacationer: ‘Huge middle finger’
A vacationer in Alaska said he felt a local restaurant flipped him “a huge middle finger” when it suggested he tip as much as 100% of his bill after breakfast with his buddies.
Harrison Snowden was visiting Anchorage from his hometown of Chicago when he and two friends went to breakfast, according to an account of the incident first reported by The Free Press.
Snowden graciously picked up the $37.25 bill when he was presented with a tipping screen that offered four suggested upcharges. The minimum was 20% — a healthy tip by many standards that the app merely rated “Good.”
That was followed by an option of 30%, described as “Great;” 50%, rated as “Wow!” and finally 100%, which the tip screen noted was for the “Best Service Ever!” per the outlet.
“It just felt like a huge middle finger. They know no one is going to tip that much,” Snowden told The Free Press.
The option to double his check made Snowden fork over gratuity of just 8% — which came to about $3 — less than he normally would have because he was so shocked.
“Had it not been that big of an ask, I actually think I would’ve ended up tipping more,” added Snowden, who works as an options trader in the Windy City, per The Free Press.
The tablet-style practice similar to the one Snowden experienced — which usually shows suggested tip rates while a customer is awkwardly face-to-face with a worker — has surged in popularity, appearing everywhere from cafes to sit-down dining establishments, nail salons and even at self-checkout stations.
Snowden is far from the first customer who feels that a gratuity system has reached a tipping point.
Just this week, a 39-year-old woman vacationing in New York City from Auburn, Ala., encountered a case of automatic gratuity while having lunch at Five Acres in Rockefeller Center on Tuesday with her parents and two children.
To make matters worse, “our service was not very good,” Miranda Jackson told The Post, calling the Midtown Manhattan restaurant’s mandatory tipping structure “presumptuous.”
“It’s almost like it doesn’t incentivize them to have good service. Our food came out at separate times. We waited forever,” she added of Five Acres’ automatic tip.
Restaurant owner James Mallios of Amali on 60th Street and Calissa in Water Mill said that automatically adding a tip is “a European approach,” where tips are handed out less generously since wait staff is usually guaranteed an hourly wage and other worker protections that American restaurant workers are not.
“Almost every restaurant in Miami does an automatic service,” said Mallios, whose two New York-based resutaurants both add 18% gratuity to all checks.
“In New York it is still not common, but I think you will see it more and more,” he added, though a report published last month from Forbes Advisor showed that nearly 75% of Americans said they leave excessively-high tips out of guilt.
Specifically, 73% of US respondents said they leave 11% gratuity at minimum when prompted digitally on devices like tablets or smart card readers, as opposed to an old-fashioned dollar or two dropped into a counter jar, Forbes’ survey found.
In these scenarios, 65% admitted to giving more as opposed to when they leave cash.
Just under one-third of Americans — 31%, to be exact — said they feel “pressure” to pay it forward, a phenomenon commonly referred to as “guilt tipping.”
Take it from Starbucks customers, after the popular coffeehouse chain shifted to a digital tip system at checkout last fall, which one could argue was met with grande distaste by some patrons.
San Antonio paralegal Laura Gonzalez called a recent payment “super awkward” while she was in its Times Square shop last year — and other customers have said similar.
“I haven’t even gotten my drink yet; why would I tip you? I think it really steers customers away because of how uncomfortable it can be for us. Especially at a location where the service isn’t great,” Amira Younis, a Virginia Tech student, griped to The Post at the time.
“It feels backward, like they’re performing the service [quality] based on the tip they’ve either already got or not gotten.”
Alaska
3 Trump officials meet with resource industry leaders in Anchorage to launch Alaska energy trip
Alaska’s governor, its two U.S. senators and three Trump administration officials gathered Sunday in an Anchorage hotel to extol an executive order meant to boost the state’s resource development industry.
The order at the heart of the meeting was signed by President Donald Trump in January, during the first day of his second term. It laid out several provisions aimed at smoothing the path toward more drilling for oil and gas; more logging; more mining; and more hunting on federal lands.
In attendance in a cramped ballroom at downtown Anchorage’s Hotel Captain Cook were Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, U.S. Sens. Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski and Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. Alongside them were several dozen invited resource development industry leaders, state lawmakers and Dunleavy administration officials who were in a jovial mood as they spoke about the potential of Alaska’s resource industry under Trump’s leadership.
Sullivan, whose office organized the event, called the visit by Trump administration officials “a seminal event.” He referred to Burgum as “Alaska’s landlord.”
The roundtable was the first of numerous events that the Trump officials planned to attend during a multiday visit to Alaska. Burgum, Wright and Zeldin were expected to travel to the North Slope early in the week to meet with residents and oil field workers. They were also scheduled to participate in a sustainable energy conference organized by Dunleavy in Anchorage.
Sunday’s two-hour roundtable was not open to the press. But after its conclusion, journalists were ushered in to listen to closing remarks by participants.
“There’s a lot of alignment amongst Alaskans behind this executive order,” said Rebecca Logan, chief executive of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance.
Sullivan began his remarks by pulling out a pamphlet his office had designed when former President Joe Biden was in office, which listed several executive decisions taken by the Biden administration that Sullivan has said were meant to “lock up” Alaska. Sullivan proceeded to rip up the pamphlet and throw the pieces in the air.
“We got a new sheriff in town,” he said.
Sullivan said the meeting was meant to facilitate the fast implementation of Trump’s January executive order, which as of yet has not led to the realization of new resource development in the state.
“We have the need for speed,” said Sullivan.
Murkowski, a Republican who has spoken frequently against actions and priorities articulated by the Trump administration, thanked the Trump officials for their “unique” visit to the state but left the event before the roundtable concluded.
“To have them here in our state, to be listening to industry leaders, to be listening to Alaskans — this is a newsworthy takeaway,” said Murkowski. ”It is instructive, I think, for those of us here in Alaska to realize the partnership that we have with this administration. The Trump administration has looked at Alaska’s potential as an asset, instead of a liability.”
The comments offered by meeting attendees were replete with grand statements but sparse on details.
Both Sullivan and Murkowski said they emerged from the meeting with a renewed interest in permitting reform that would make it easier for private industry to launch new resource development projects in the state.
“It shouldn’t take 20 years to permit an old mine in Alaska. That hurts people, when you delay things for so long,” said Sullivan. “The radical far left groups that do it, they don’t care about our state, they don’t care about the communities, like in Western Alaska, with their poverty that they have. They just want to shut down everything.”
“We just need the federal government to help us, and this is the team that wants to do it,” said Sullivan.
Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said “there is nowhere more important for the three of us to be right now than right here,” referring to himself, Wright and Burgum.
“I am extraordinarily confident in knowing that once this very productive visit to Alaska is done and we head back to Washington, D.C., that this team is able to work with your governor, with your congressional delegation, to be able to work with all of you to make sure this wasn’t just some ideal on a Sunday morning of an amazing future ahead for Alaska. It’s not just a dream,” said Zeldin.
Wright, the energy secretary, said that Trump got elected on the promise to deliver “not handouts to Alaskans” — rather, “freedom to develop the underground materials and turn them into resources.”
Interior Secretary Burgum said, “Alaska has an opportunity to allow us to do one of the mandates of the Trump administration, which is to sell energy to our friends and allies, so they don’t have to buy it from our adversaries.”
“The potential of this state is unbelievable,” said Burgum. “It can really become a powerhouse of a state.”
“But we’ve got to get the federal government out of your way. That’s what the three of us are here to do” said Burgum.
LNG discussion
Chief among the resource development priorities emphasized by Trump during the first months of his second term has been a liquefied natural gas pipeline project that has been long sought by Alaska politicians. For decades, the project has remained far from realization, in large part because it is expected to cost a staggering $44 billion.
Sullivan acknowledged Sunday that “we get Alaskans who roll their eyes” at the LNG project, but he said there has been “really historic progress happening” both with interest from the private sector and with Trump’s stated commitment to the project.
“A lot of tailwinds there, exciting times. We’re not there yet, but it’s exciting,” said Sullivan.
The high-level meeting offered no new details on developments with the project.
Dunleavy recently went on a multi-stop trip to Asian countries to promote Alaska’s LNG. Burgum said Sunday that “there are huge implications for national security for the United States to be able to export energy to our Pacific allies — South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan.”
“We just have to be able to do math in this country and understand that the impacts are so low,” said Burgum.
Sullivan said that the Trump administration would “work with us on federal loan guarantees for the Alaska LNG project,” but the officials in attendance did not offer new details on how the project would be financed.
“The Alaska pipeline, if we get off-take agreements, if we sell energy to our Pacific allies, there will be people lined up to finance it,” said Burgum. “It won’t take foreign capital to build the pipeline. There may be foreign interest in wanting to be part of it, because it’s going to be a great project, but what we really need is customers.”
Renewable energy
Even as the Trump administration has championed Alaska’s energy potential, it has taken steps that could thwart several ongoing renewable energy projects throughout the state.
Alaska utilities in recent years have been turning increasingly to renewables as costs for fossil-fuel electricity have increased. Those projects were enabled in part through tax credits approved in Biden-era legislation. Now, the Trump administration is freezing grants for some energy projects, and with the passage of the latest tax and spending bill, Republicans in Congress are looking to undo those tax credits — with support from Alaska’s U.S. Rep. Nick Begich.
That could mean that several projects with the potential of lowering Alaskans’ energy bills will be halted.
Those impacts were not on the agenda for the public portion of Sunday’s meeting.
Murkowski is one of four Senate Republicans who have spoken in favor of preserving the tax credits that have paved the way for renewable energy projects in Alaska.
Asked Sunday about the Trump administration’s impacts on Alaska’s renewable energy projects, Sullivan was noncommittal.
“We’re an all-of-the-above energy state,” Sullivan said Sunday. “We’re looking at the different elements of what’s in the House budget reconciliation bill … but we’re still studying the bill and trying to figure out what’s the best way to balance what’s in the budget reconciliation with the overall goals of that bill.”
High School
Soccer
Girls
Thursday
South 4, Chugiak 0
Monroe Catholic 5, Grace Christian 0
Soldotna 1, Ketchikan 0
Colony 2, Service 1
Dimond 5, West Valley 0
Kenai Central 7, Redington 0
Homer 4, Palmer 1
Wasilla 2, Lathrop 1
Friday
Grace Christian 6, Redington 2
Service 5, West Valley 1
Chugiak 4, Lathrop 1
Palmer 1, Ketchikan 0
Soldotna 3, Homer 1
Kenai Central 2, Monroe Catholic 1
Dimond 1, Colony 0
South 3, Wasilla 0
Saturday
Palmer 1, Grace Christian 0
Monroe Catholic 4, Homer 3
Kenai Central 2, Soldotna 0
Colony 1, Wasilla 0
Service 4, Chugiak 1
South 4, Dimond 0
Boys
Thursday
West 4, Wasilla 0
Kenai Central 3, Monroe Catholic 0
Palmer 5, Homer 0
Ketchikan 5, Houston 0
West Valley 2, Dimond 1
Soldotna 3, North Pole 0
Juneau-Douglas 2, Service 1
Colony 2, South 1
Friday
Wasilla 3, Service 1
North Pole 3, Monroe Catholic 0
South 3, Dimond 2
Homer 4, Houston 2
Palmer 4, Ketchikan 3
Soldotna 4, Kenai Central 0
West Anchorage 3, Juneau-Douglas 2
West Valley 2, Colony 0
Saturday
Kenai Central 2, Ketchikan 0
Homer 2, North Pole 0
Wasilla 2, South 1
Palmer 3, Soldotna 2
Colony 5, Juneau-Douglas 0
West v. West Valley (late)
• • •
Softball
Tuesday
Monroe Catholic 7, North Pole 4
Monroe Catholic 11, North Pole 7
Wednesday
Delta 8, Monroe Catholic 2
Delta 7, Monroe Catholic 2
Dimond 15, Service 1
South 10, Bartlett 1
Chugiak 15, West 2
Service 14, Bartlett 13
Thursday
East 9, Dimond 6
South 7, Chugiak 1
Dimond 10, Service 2
Chugiak 12, West 0
Friday
Colony 11, Wasilla 0
Colony 10, Juneau-Douglas 2
East 1, South 0
Chugiak 11, Dimond 1
• • •
Baseball
Tuesday
Dimond 13, East 3
West 12, Bartlett 1
Wednesday
South 9, West 1
Dimond 10, Chugiak 2
Thursday
Service 10, Dimond 1
Eagle River 6, South 1
Wasilla 11, Lathrop 1
Colony 9, West Valley 3
Juneau-Douglas 10, Ketchikan 5
Houston 7, Kenai Central 4
Palmer 13, Redington 7
Soldotna 12, Grace Christian 1
Kodiak 2, Homer 0
Palmer 8, Houston 1
Soldotna 13, Kodiak 4
Friday
Sitka 6, Juneau-Douglas 2
Juneau-Douglas 4, Ketchikan 3
Colony 5, Wasilla 2
West Valley 4, Lathrop 3
South 7, Dimond 4
Eagle River 4, Service 3 (10)
Monroe Catholic 17, Delta 1
Kenai Central 7, Kodiak 3
Homer 8, Houston 3
Soldotna 10, Palmer 0
Saturday
Wasilla 2, West Valley 1
Sitka 14, Juneau-Douglas 12
• • •
Track and field
ASAA State Track and Field Championships
Day 1
Friday
Division I
Girls
3200 Meters Finals
1. Hannah Shaha 11:19.93, Chugiak
2. Hailee Giacobbe 11:23.22, Wasilla
3. Rosie Conway 11:35.46, East
4. Ella Hopkins 11:46.73, Colony
Discus 1kg Finals
1. Mona Koko 119’01.00, West
2. Layla Hays 115’09.00, Wasilla
3. Ailafo Fautanu 106’09.00, Dimond
4. Alessa Scott, 106’03.00, Dimond
High Jump Finals
1. Nevaeh Watkins 5’6.00, Dimond
2. Autumn Larson 5’4.00, Chugiak
3. Avery Johnson 4’10.00, Palmer
4. Hallie Fischer 4’10.00, Soldotna
Triple Jump Finals
1. Izzy Kizer 37’00.25, North Pole
2. Izabela Sullivan 36’02.50, West
3. Amelia Dempsey 34’08.75, Chugiak
4. Maya Tirpack 34’00.00, South
Boys
3200 Meters Finals
1. Vebjorn Flagstad 9:59.04, South
2. Katahdin Staples 10:00.68, East
3. Owen Woodruff 10:00.85, Juneau-Douglas.
4. David Penfield 10:01.51, Chugiak
Shot Put – 12lb Finals
1. Deuce Alailefaleula 53’01.00, Bartlett
2. Luke Miller 51’09.50, Soldotna
3. George Lane 51’03.50, East
4. Benjamin Hiestand 48’05.50, Chugiak
High Jump Varsity – Finals
1. Trey Colbert 6’0.00, Ketchikan
2. Corbin Gerkin 6’0.00, Palmer
3. Cameron Anderson 5’8.00, Service
3. Deontae Cromer 5’8.00, West Valley
Triple Jump Varsity Finals
1. Isaiah Douyon 43’02.75, South
2. Kenneth Motton 42’09.50, Colony
3. Johnathyn Kestel 42’00.75, Juneau-Douglas
4. Corde Bates 41’02.50, Dimond
Division II
Girls
3200 Meters Finals
1. Clare Mullin 11:49.35, Sitka
2. Iris Haas 11:55.96, Delta Junction
3. Marina Dill 11:59.96, Sitka
4. Claira Booz 12:08.88, Homer
Discus 1kg Finals
1. Jieaya Siatini Williams 122’00.00, Mountain City Christian
2. Alexia Pik 108’00.00, Redington
3. Emma Dohrn 95’09.00, Haines
4. Madison Dill 93’08.00, Sitka
High Jump Finals
1. Jessie Wentworth 5’0.00, Su Valley
2. Abby Sampson 4’10.00, Hutchison
3. Emma Walsh 4’10.00, Monroe Catholic
4. Maura McDaniel 4’8.00, Su Valley
Triple Jump Finals
1. Mia Bukala 34’02.00, Redington
2. Caroline Klebs 34’01.50, Grace Christian
3. Reilly Sue Baker 32’01.50, Homer
4. Selah Coots 31’05.50, Kenai Central
Boys
3200 Meters Finals
1. Robbie Annett 9:47.95, Grace Christian
2. Connor Hitchcock 9:48.57, Sitka
3. Colton Merriner 9:49.39, Grace Christian
4. Johannes Bynagle 10:02.21, Homer
Shot Put – 12lb Finals
1. Zach Martel 43’05.50, Redington
2. Kyle Petersen 41’11.25, Valdez
3. Gage Hawes 41’04.75, Houston
4. Kaden Duke 41’03.75, Petersburg
High Jump Varsity – Finals
1. Olin Liljemark 5’10.00, Seward
2. Austin Barnard 5’10.00, Su Valley
3. Royce Borst 5’8.00, Skagway
4. Luke Elhard 5’8.00, Seward
Triple Jump Varsity Finals
1. Gage Ivy 41’00.25, Kenai Central
2. Joshua Woko 40’02.00, Mountain City Christian
3. Jaidhen Oyao 39’07.25, Mountain City Christian
4. Cole McLaughlin 39’02.75, Sitka
• • •
2025 Twilight 12k/6k
12K Male Overall
1: Riley Howard, Anchorage, AK 37:21; 2: William McGovern, Anchorage, AK 37:28; 3: Noah Laughlin-Hall, Anchorage, AK 39:46; 4: Scott Patterson, Anchorage, AK 40:22; 5: Conor Deal, Anchorage, AK 41:30; 6: Andy Peters, Anchorage, AK 42:17; 7: Brian Sweeney, Anchorage, AK 42:26; 8: Connor Marth, Anchorage, AK 42:42; 9: Allan Spangler, Anchorage, AK 42:49; 10: Michael Rabe, Anchorage, AK 42:56; 11: Chad Trammell, Anchorage, AK 43:57; 12: Ryan Beckett, Anchorage, AK 44:11; 13: Dash Dicang, Anchorage, AK 44:18; 14: Eric Mortensen, Anchorage, AK 44:28; 15: Isaac Landecker, Anchorage, AK 44:39; 16: Nick Mendolia, Anchorage, AK 44:44; 17: Andrew Pounds, Anchorage, AK 44:52; 18: Trygve Solomonson, Eagle River, AK 44:58; 19: Mike Garvey, Anchorage, AK 45:08; 20: John Cosgrave, Anchorage, AK 45:25
12k Female Overall
1: Anna Dalton, Anchorage, AK 43:57; 2: Julianne Dickerson, Anchorage, AK 47:24; 3: Molly Walli, Anchorage, AK 47:38; 4: Breanna Day, Eagle River, AK 48:21; 5: Sam Longacre, Anchorage, AK 49:32; 6: Hannah Souders, Anchorage, AK 50:33; 7: Sarah Cosgrave, Anchorage, AK 51:00; 8: Kyra Walter, Eagle River, AK 53:10; 9: Carolyn Stwertka, Anchorage, AK 53:11; 10: Rylee Ruggles, Eagle River, AK 53:11; 11: Allison Macy, Chugiak, AK 53:25; 12: Trophe Brandt, Anchorage, AK 53:47; 13: Anna Smith, Anchorage, AK 54:00; 14: Jillian Gavalya, Chugiak, AK 54:09; 15: Haley Gilman, Anchorage, AK 54:11; 16: Brooke Gottmeier, Anchorage, AK 54:26; 17: Iris Samuels, Anchorage, AK 54:54; 18: Annika Dollick, Levelock, AK 55:06; 19: Sofija Spaic, Palmer, AK 55:07; 20: Lia Slemons, Anchorage, AK 55:31
6K Male Overall
1: Eduardo Orozco, Anchorage, AK 19:31; 2: Hoka Ben, Kent, WA 20:15; 3: Amadeus Semo, Anchorage, AK 21:36; 4: Pedro Ochoa, Homer, AK 21:48; 5: Malachi Stamoolis, Wasilla, AK 22:49; 6: Will Graham, Anchorage, AK 22:57; 7: Mark Fineman, Anchorage, AK 23:48; 8: Cyrus Rader, Wasilla, AK 23:58; 9: Emerson Michaud, WasillaWasilla, AK 24:00; 10: Miles King, Anchorage, AK 24:07; 11: Tyler Berliner, Anchorage, AK 24:37; 12: Reyce Lee, Anchorage, AK 24:45; 13: Kaden Brown, Anchorage, AK 25:00; 14: Joel Stamoolis, Wasilla, AK 25:02; 15: Dylan Chalifour, Anchorage, AK 25:16; 16: Parker Hadley, Eagle River, AK 25:56; 17: Ashley Schultze, Chugiak, AK 26:11; 18: Ed Leonetti, Anchorage, AK 26:12; 19: Zane Hopewell, Anchorage, AK 26:13; 20: Jonathan Moran, Anchorage, AK 26:45
6K Female Overall
1: Emily Moore, Eagle River, AK 23:22; 2: Karina Packer, Anchorage, AK 24:13; 3: Liv Kullberg, Anchorage, AK 25:00; 4: Holly Martinson, Anchorage, AK 25:58; 5: Gigi Leonetti, Anchorage, AK 26:06; 6: Jennifer McGrath, Anchorage, AK 26:31; 7: Nicole Kimball, Anchorage, AK 26:37; 8: Heather Poe, Anchorage, AK 26:41; 9: Meghan Saramak, Anchorage, AK 27:34; 10: Hailee Stepetin, Eagle River, AK 27:37; 11: Estelle Johnson, Eagle River, AK 28:07; 12: Ashley Shaw, Eagle River, AK 28:10; 13: Jane Jackson, Provo, UT 28:39; 14: Alexandra Miller, Anchorage, AK 28:56; 15: Elsa Sternicki, Anchorage, AK 29:05; 16: Cameron Otte, Eagle River, AK 29:33; 17: Amanda Peters, Anchorage, AK 29:35; 18: Akari Kawamura, Komaki, AK 29:50; 19: Brittany Cross, Palmer, AK 30:31; 20: Suzanne Ward, Anchorage, AK 30:44
In the past week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have detained two men in Alaska. At least one will be deported back to Peru, according to his wife, who is an Anchorage resident and U.S. citizen.
The recent ICE arrests in Alaska — totaling at least 11 since January 2025, according to state Department of Corrections statistics — paint a picture of what local immigration attorneys are calling a “shocking” uptick under a presidential administration that’s working toward its quota of deporting 1 million immigrants. Not yet halfway through the year, ICE has detained almost the same number of people — and placed them in Alaska jails before sending them to detention centers out of state — as it did in all of 2024, according to state data.
But that number doesn’t account for all ICE arrests, said Alaska immigration attorney Margaret Stock. Some detainees are flown directly out of state, and thus are not counted by the Department of Corrections, which contracts with ICE to temporarily house detainees. A spokesperson from ICE said they could not answer specific questions about total arrests in Alaska this year.
The wife of one of the detained men says in the wake of the arrest, she’s spent hours on the phone fighting for information about her loved one from both state and federal officials.
In an interview Thursday, Paola Jimenez, 30, said she was just settling into her work at an Anchorage dermatology office last Friday morning when her husband, 32-year-old Cristian Ibanez Velasquez, called her. He’d just dropped her off 30 minutes beforehand.
She picked up like normal. “He said: ‘I got detained. It’s with ICE,’” Jimenez said in an interview nearly a week later. “‘I’m in handcuffs. They want to talk to you.’” Ibanez Velasquez, from Peru, only speaks Spanish, and the ICE officer arresting him didn’t have an interpreter when they handcuffed him in the couple’s driveway.
An ICE officer told Jimenez the news: Her husband was being detained — or effectively arrested — and would be held at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. He would be taken to the nearest ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington, she was told, where he’d be deported by plane to his home country of Peru.
[Ukrainian refugees begin planning departures from Alaska ahead of expiring statuses]
Ibanez Velasquez entered the United States through Arizona illegally in 2022, but was in regular contact with immigration officials about his whereabouts ever since, his wife said. He reported changes in address — first to Chicago, and then Anchorage — and uploaded weekly photos of himself through a federal application that monitored his whereabouts, according to Jimenez. He doesn’t appear to have a state or federal criminal record, based on a search of publicly available data.
In Peru, Jimenez said her husband was a motorcycle mechanic. He came to the United States to seek better opportunities, she said.
But a missed a court appearance in New York in 2023 ultimately led to an order for removal that year, which Jimenez said her husband was unaware of. Local immigration attorney Nicolas Olano, who Jimenez contacted for help, broke the news when he looked up Ibanez Velasquez‘s immigration case using the Peruvian’s Alien Registration Number assigned by the Department of Homeland Security. At that point, with a deportation order and a missed court appearance, Olano said there wasn’t much he could do.
The couple’s situation was first reported by Alaska Public Media.
Jimenez questions why ICE officials didn’t notify her husband of his deportation order sooner.
“That same (ICE) officer that was doing his check-ins, was the same officer that detained him,” Jimenez said. “So if there was an order for removal back then, why did no one ever say anything to him?”
The couple met in 2023, and married in fall 2024. Jimenez, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico, said that financial constraints kept them from getting a lawyer to help get her husband the proper paperwork.
Now, her greatest wish is for her husband’s safe and swift delivery to his country, where she plans to eventually meet him.
“The only thing that we want right now is for him to go back home to Peru,” she said. “I would love it if he could stay here, but it’s not going to happen.”
Over the last week, Jimenez has visited her husband at the Anchorage Correctional Complex several times. She said he was wearing a yellow jumpsuit, and they spoke through a glass panel. He complained about a lack of interpretation service at the jail, she said, which prevented him from getting medication. “He said, ‘Nobody tells me anything here.’”
Asked about legal obligations for language interpretations and medication access, Alaska Department of Law spokeswoman Patty Sullivan said, “DOC provides the same level of care for federal inmates and detainees that it does for state inmates. This includes medical care and translation services, as needed.”
On Thursday morning, an online detainee locator showed Ibanez Velasquez was in Anchorage, his wife said.
[Amid immigration crackdown, Anchorage leaders push back at city’s inclusion on federal list of ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’]
A spokesperson for the Department of Corrections confirmed that both detainees were out of their custody as of Thursday evening. The other man, identified as Leobardo Cardona-Rivas, a Mexican citizen, was detained May 25, according to department spokesperson Betsy Holley.
By Friday afternoon, Jimenez said her husband’s online detainee locator showed he arrived in Tacoma. She hadn’t heard from him yet that day.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Jimenez said, choking up.
In Anchorage, the couple loved to go to La Michoacana for treats, take drives to Wasilla, go on dates to Texas Roadhouse, stay home and watch TV with their two cats, and fulfill InstaCart delivery orders together.
Now, Jimenez said, she comes home from work to an empty house, and doesn’t know when she’ll next see — or hear from — her husband.
“When he gets sent to Peru, then I am going to go right behind him,” she said. “Because, well, he’s my husband.”
Frazier Museum turns up the volume on Kentucky history
Virginia Kirkpatrick crowned Miss Louisiana’s Teen 2025
Ocala man, 74, drowns in Maine lake. Here’s what we know.
Despite vaccination rate drops, Maryland is in the clear for measles herd immunity
Georgia Tech athletic director J Batt accepts job at Michigan State
-
World1 week agoNeo-Nazi cult leader extradited to US for plot to kill Jewish children
-
Business1 week agoPlastic Spoons, Umbrellas, Violins: A Guide to What Americans Buy From China
-
World1 week agoCade Cunningham Gains $45 Million From All-NBA Honors
-
Movie Reviews7 days agoMOVIE REVIEW – Mission: Impossible 8 has Tom Cruise facing his final reckoning
-
Movie Reviews1 week agoKapkapiii movie review: Horror-comedy signals a saturation point for the genre
-
Rhode Island1 week agoAssessors find ‘nonconformities’ with national standards at RI Crime Lab. What to know.
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago‘Magellan’ Review: Gael Garcia Bernal Plays the Famous Explorer in Lav Diaz’s Exquisitely Shot Challenge of an Arthouse Epic
-
Education1 week agoVideo: Judge Blocks Trump Move to Ban Foreign Students at Harvard