Earlier this week, several officers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency detained a Venezuelan man in Hibbing. According to paperwork reviewed by WDIO News, Alvaro Villamizar came to the U.S. legally and authorized to work from March of 2024 through August of 2025. Ice agents detain Alvaro on Monday June 16th.

A week ago, he notified ICE of his already-made plans to leave the country on August 5th. 48 Hours later, Alvaro was detained by agents. He was working with a local non-profit on the Iron Range, “Building Men and Women for a Change” who help at-risk youth with community support.

We spoke with the Executive Director, Terry Parham who says Alvaro voluntarily made the decision to self-deport. His reasons include the delays in the asylum process, uncertainty around current U.S. Immigration policies, and other mounting pressures.

“His whole Visa thing, he says he’s still got 50 days left on it. I do have a copy of that which shows the amount of time he does have left on it. I’m thinking he got kind of flustered with it.” Parham said. “He told them, ‘If this is going to be a big issue, why don’t I just save up enough money and I’ll buy my own ticket, and go back to my family in Venezuela?'”

WDIO News reached out to both St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office and Hibbing Police Department. They both they said they were unaware of the ICE officers .

“Why would you come and get him, when he’s valid? He’s doing everything. You guys set up a hearing from him. Why would you just uproot all that, for whatever reason?” Parham said. “They won’t tell me what he’s being detained for, they won’t give me that information.”

Terry Parham added that they do not know Alvaro’s current location, or where he is being detained. He says all of Alvaro’s work and residency papers were in order prior to the detainment, and they’re working to find him legal representation.

“This is an area right here that I wouldn’t have never imagined happened to navigate through. So I am looking right now, one of the reasons I’m here in Duluth is to look for a lawyer,” Parham said. “We do have the funding available to pay for actual lawyer to really look into this and really get the things taken care of that we need to get taken care of.”

There is a GoFundMe established for Alvaro Villamizar to help him during this difficult time.

“For me and for our organization, that’s what we say we do. We say that we stand up for people,” Parham said. “So as the executive director of this organization, I am going to make sure that this gets out there. Where is he at? Why would you come and get him when he’s valid?”

The funds raised through the GoFundMe will be used to help him communicate with Alvaro’s loved ones, provide basic essentials and food while in custody, and provide basic financial support upon deportation. Also for other news stories involving immigration, we have more stories here.