KEY WEST, Fla. — A U.S. Navy sailor serving aboard the troubled USS Abraham Lincoln learned over the weekend that his father had been detained by federal immigration authorities in Key West as the sailor completed an extended deployment in the Middle East.
Joshua Aviles Castillo, a U.S. citizen who was recently recognized as Sailor of the Week, said his father, Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, was detained Saturday near a Searstown Publix shopping center.
The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News that Border Patrol agents arrested Aviles Roa, a Nicaraguan national, during a traffic stop. DHS said he entered the United States illegally and remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody while facing deportation proceedings.
Family members said Aviles Roa was on his way to take his vehicle to a mechanic when agents stopped him. His family said he has lived in the United States for almost 20 years, has no criminal record and possesses a driver’s license, Social Security card and federal work permit.
The family also said Aviles Roa has a pending immigration application and is awaiting a decision on his request for permanent legal residency.
A work permit authorizes someone to work in the United States but does not, by itself, establish lawful immigration status.
Aviles Roa’s detention came during a weekend of increased immigration enforcement in Key West and elsewhere in Monroe County. Families and immigration advocates reported multiple detentions, including some involving people who held federal work permits or had pending immigration cases.
Aviles Castillo described his father as a hardworking and humble man who was always willing to help others.
“I’ve been deployed for over nine months, out at sea in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighting for a country that has given me everything,” Aviles Castillo wrote on social media.
He said the news had left him struggling to concentrate as he continued working shifts of more than 12 hours aboard the aircraft carrier.
“This is heartbreaking for me,” he wrote. “I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12-plus-hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal.”
Aviles Castillo said his family had followed the immigration process and was waiting for his father’s green card application to be decided.
“My dad’s only ‘crime’ was coming to this country to give my siblings and me a better life,” he wrote.
In a message addressed directly to his father, Aviles Castillo urged him to remain strong:
“Dad, I don’t know where you are right now, but know that I am doing everything I can to bring you back home,” he wrote. “I love you with all my heart. Please stay strong. I’m coming home, Dad.”
Katherine “Katty” Delgado, Aviles’ sister, told CBS News that communication with him has been intermittent because he remains deployed. She said he has had difficulty eating and sleeping since learning about his father’s detention.
“His mind is focused now on, ‘Where is my dad? And how is he doing?’” Delgado said.
DHS did not dispute the family’s statement that Aviles Roa has no criminal record. The agency said, however, that “having a family member in the military is not a free pass” to violate immigration law.
The department said the Trump administration was enforcing immigration laws passed by Congress and would not exempt the parents or spouses of service members from arrest and deportation proceedings.
Immigration arrests involving military families, historically uncommon, have increased since the Trump administration rescinded previous restrictions on enforcement actions involving military spouses and parents as part of its broader deportation campaign.
The USS Abraham Lincoln and its approximately 5,000 crew members left the Middle East last week and are returning to the United States after the longest and most controversial deployment of an aircraft carrier in US history. The journey is expected to take several weeks.
Aviles Castillo’s family is now trying to determine where his father is being held and whether he can be released while his immigration case proceeds.
CBS News contributed reporting.