Douglas Dixon (left) had been living in the US since 2005 and had a Green Card. He was deported for failing tax payment.
61-year-old Douglas Dixon, who has been living in Florida since 2005 and had a Green Card giving him permanent residency in the US, was deported to Canada after he failed ti pay taxes. During the pandemic, Dixon, who is a grandfather now, had to shut down his smoothie shop and he fell behind more than $30,000 (US dollar) in unpaid taxes. In 2022, he pleaded no contest to tax evasion and agreed to a monthly repayment plan according to which he was paying back the amount. But he still owes the US government approximately $12,000 which triggered his ICE arrest and deportation. Defrauding the government of more than $10,000 in revenue is considered “an aggravated felony.”Before his arrest, he was working for DoorDash. On February 10, Dixon went to check in with his probation officer but as he reached there, he was confronted by half a dozen ICE officers who shackled him and sent him to Alligator Alcatraz, the notorious ICE detention center. “They’re treating people like animals. Alligator Alcatraz is like (Nazi) Germany in 1939, updated with 2026 rules,” Dixon told CTV News.From there he was moved to another detention centre but by that time he alredy fell sick because of the inhuman conditions of the Alligator Alcatraz. Though Dixon got a hearing and his attorney presented letters from 14 friends on his hockey team who vouched for his character, the judge ordered Dixon to be deported to Canada. After 21 years in the US, concluded by 65 days in detention, Dixon was put on an American Airlines flight to Toronto on Wednesday. He has also been barred from US for life.“I did not think that the United States was going to treat people inhumanely —but they do not care about the human condition in those detention centers,” he said.