Douglas Dixon, 61, who has lived in Florida since 2005 and had a green card for permanent residence in the US, was deported to Canada after failing to pay taxes. During the pandemic, Dixon, now a grandfather, had to close his smoothie shop and owe more than $30,000 (US dollars) in back taxes. In 2022, he pleaded no contest to tax evasion and agreed to a monthly repayment plan according to which he was paying the amount. But he still owes the US government about $12,000, which led to his ICE arrest and deportation. Fraud of more than $10,000 in government revenue is considered “a serious crime”.Before his arrest, he was working for DoorDash. On February 10, Dixon went to check in with his probation officer, but as soon as he got there, he was confronted by a half-dozen ICE officers, who put him in shackles and sent him to Alligator Alcatraz, a 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 center, but by that time he had already fallen ill due to the inhumane conditions of Alligator Alcatraz. Although Dixon went to trial and his attorney presented letters from 14 friends of his hockey team who vouched for his character, the judge ordered Dixon deported to Canada. After 65 days in detention in the US for 21 years, Dixon was put on an American Airlines flight to Toronto on Wednesday. He has also been banned from America for life.He said, “I didn’t think the United States would treat people inhumanely – but they don’t care about the humanitarian conditions in those detention centers.”
