By Matt Kite
Tacoma Weekly
November 12, 2025

They can’t share his name. They can’t share why he was detained. And they can’t share many details of his private life.

That’s because Kuya G, as he has come to be known, is a detainee at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. The organization working hard for his release, the Tanggol Migrante Movement, doesn’t want to endanger him in any way.

“We’re not disclosing his full name for his protection,” said Bea Guerrera, a volunteer and member of the steering committee for the migrant rights organization.

Kuya means big brother in Tagalog, a language spoken by many in the Philippines, and Kuya G has become the poster child of Filipino migrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to Guerrera, Kuya G is a Filipino green card holder and has been a legal permanent resident in the US for the past twenty years. He was detained last March while working in Alaska and subsequently transferred to NWDC.

While he struggled to obtain proper legal representation at NWDC over the spring and summer, Kuya G, who is in his forties, began to lose weight, his health deteriorating precipitously. At first, his symptoms included bloody stools. Then he began to show signs of an infection. He asked for medical help and was treated with laxatives, which only worsened his pain. Soon he was feverish and coughing up blood. Finally, on October 16, authorities at NWDC made the decision to send him across town to St. Joseph Medical Center, where he was diagnosed with colitis and screened for cancer.

But Kuya G’s troubles didn’t end there. An infection in his foot led to the amputation of a toe, and follow-up surgery was required a few days later to root out more of the infection.

Asked to comment on his condition, officials at St. Joseph declined. “Out of respect for our patients and in alignment with privacy laws, we cannot comment on specifics of care for any current or former patient,” said Andrew Baxter, vice president and chief nursing officer at St. Joseph. “We remain committed to delivering compassionate, high-quality care to every patient who comes to St. Joseph Medical Center.”

Guerrera, herself a nurse at a busy Seattle hospital, described a dangerous incident that occurred during Kuya G’s stay at St. Joseph. “A few days ago we learned that an ICE officer had left a loaded gun in the bathroom at the hospital,” she said. “They left it for several hours, and people were asking whose gun it was, and no one claimed it until after seven hours, and I think they were a lead ICE officer. You can imagine how much that can intimidate and scare staff and patients. It’s extremely reckless and an endangerment to the community and to the hospital, and these are the people who have been detaining migrants.”

ICE has designated Kuya G for deportation to the Philippines. Asked to comment on his treatment during his stay at NWDC, ICE’s Office of Public Affairs did not offer an official response.

Tanggol Migrante Movement and other organizations in the local community, meanwhile, have held vigil outside St. Joseph, hosting press conferences, livestreaming small rallies, and publicizing Kuya G’s plight. At the time of this writing, Kuya G was still receiving treatment at the hospital.

“Right now we’re trying to help him reopen and repeal his case and get his health needs addressed,” Guerrera said. “Unfortunately, there are many migrants who are in the detention center who are experiencing medical neglect. We’re calling it medical violence because of the willful disregard for human rights and the refusal to ensure humane conditions for those who are detained. We’ve heard examples of other migrants who were detained while they had cancer and did not get any treatment done while they were in detention. We recently heard about a migrant who is currently on hunger strike because his hand is infected after a guard closed a door on it, and all he’s getting is Tylenol. Kuya G’s story is just a glimpse of the medical neglect and violence that is happening at the detention center.”

Guerrera also contends that the Philippine government has been slow to respond to pleas for help. “We’ve been fighting month after month since we met Kuya G in April to advocate for his release,” she said. “We have been conducting monthly phone barrages to the Philippine Consulate to insure one, that he has legal representation, and two, that his health needs are addressed. The support that they’ve given has really only been in response to whenever we pressure them to do something.”

Kuya G is the father of three daughters and known for his friendliness and fierce loyalty to his children, but he has been allowed only sporadic communication with his family, who remains in Alaska. According to Guerrera, he struggled with substance use earlier in his life and fears the possibility of relapse or even death should he be deported to the Philippines, where, until recently, the government encouraged the public to kill drug addicts as part of the country’s war on drugs. “In the Philippines,” she said, “they don’t really have the rehabilitative approach for folks who are dependent on substance use, but here he’s been able to get some of those resources and would like to not use anymore.”

According to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that specializes in data, nearly 60,000 immigrants were in detention across the U.S. as of September 15, with just less than 1,200 housed at NWDC. Of those in detention, 71.5 percent have no criminal convictions.

“Right now we know of at least ten Filipinos at Northwest Detention Center,” Guerrera said. “Some have already been repatriated. We’ve been in contact with all of them and have been trying to support them for the last few months. We’ve actually been able to free five migrants. That’s a huge victory, but obviously there’s more work to be done.”