{"id":5127,"date":"2026-06-23T19:33:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5127"},"modified":"2026-06-23T19:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T19:33:46","slug":"i-lost-everything-orlando-resident-returns-home-after-months-in-ice-custody-in-pa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5127","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I lost everything\u2019: Orlando resident returns home after months in ICE custody in Pa."},"content":{"rendered":"
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After six months in an ICE facility in Pennsylvania and a 31-hour train ride from Pittsburgh, Islam Aly on Monday stepped onto the platform of the Amtrak station in Orlando with a beaming smile.<\/p>\n

Read more Florida\u2019s Citizens Property Insurance sees policy count drop to all-time low<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s freaking hot, how long have you guys been here?\u201d he said with a laugh as his friends embraced him.<\/p>\n

He returned looking different from when he had left. Aly was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease inside the facility, suffered some vision loss and dropped over 45 pounds.<\/p>\n

He turned to one of his friends, Lisa Barfield, who along with her husband Mark wore a T-shirt bearing Aly\u2019s face and the words \u201cFree Izzy\u201d across the chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cLisa Barfield,\u201d Aly said, looking to her. \u201cThank you. Thank you very much \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do anything,\u201d Barfield said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, listen, you got to me in there when you said you cried for me. Do you have any idea what a detainee feels when they hear that?\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who they used to live among and they used to actually talk with and breathe with and share the same space with \u2014 I\u2019m sorry I put you through this,\u201d Aly said. \u201cI am very, very regretful. I could have been more careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not your fault,\u201d she insisted.<\/p>\n

Aly had been arrested Dec. 23 after flying into Philadelphia as he was coming home from Egypt, where he was visiting following the death of his father.<\/p>\n

A green card applicant at the time, he was granted parole by the government allowing him to leave the U.S. temporarily to settle his father\u2019s affairs \u2014 only to be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement upon his return and sent to the notorious Moshannon Valley Processing Center, where his health suffered after being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. He wasn\u2019t notified about his diagnosis for two months, he said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Aly was released on his own recognizance by ICE, but it\u2019s not clear why.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel lucky but also a little bit lost,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the first stage in my life where I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen from here, and that is the least I can say for tens of thousands of other people around the country in worse situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Aly\u2019s attorney filed a habeas corpus petition in the Western District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office there argued that permission to leave the country doesn\u2019t legally protect him from being detained, according to federal court filings obtained by the Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative, formerly known as Habeas Dockets, and shared with the Orlando Sentinel.<\/p>\n

Aly, who arrived Monday dressed in the same black suit he wore to his father\u2019s funeral, was advised by his lawyers not to discuss his case with reporters.<\/p>\n

Read more Maxwell: Here we go again. Orange County looks to ensure hotel taxes can\u2019t pay for local needs.<\/a><\/p>\n

But looking back, he had \u201ctoo much faith in the system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although he has lived in the U.S. for 13 years, first on a student visa and eventually on an E-2 investor visa after starting a media production company, records show authorities determined Aly was not \u201cclearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted\u201d after arriving in Philadelphia, citing in part an alleged \u201csham marriage\u201d with an American citizen.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the life Aly built in Orlando fell apart. He lost his car, his Hunters Creek apartment, his valuables and his beloved cat, Mia. With no money to his name, a GoFundMe page created to cover his legal and medical expenses collected over $12,000, and activists and the Muslim community in Pittsburgh raised the money to buy him a train ticket home.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s now focused on getting his life back together with the help of his friends, who secured a place for him to stay ahead of future check-ins with immigration authorities \u2014 while seeking medical care for his kidney disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe R&R that I\u2019m looking for is not \u2018rest and relaxation,\u2019 it\u2019s recovery and restitution,\u201d Aly said. \u201cI lost all my property. I lost everything. I lost my damn cat. I need to find my cat.\u201d<\/p>\n

The federal petition is expected to be dismissed now that he\u2019s been released, and an immigration judge\u2019s decision to reject his green card application is under appeal.<\/p>\n

Aly\u2019s case and others at Moshannon were highlighted by local news outlets and activists in Clearfield County, Pa., who demanded the detention center \u2014 run by the Florida-based private prison company GEO Group \u2014 be shut down.<\/p>\n

Aly remembers other detainees cheering for him on the day he was released. Some offered advice on how to protect himself legally on the outside.<\/p>\n

On the train ride home, he looked over news coverage of his detention and reflected on the social media comment sections attacking him. Some of the derogatory posts, he observed, coincided with increased donations to the GoFundMe supporting him.<\/p>\n

While he is happy to be free, his thoughts remain with the other detainees at Moshannon. There\u2019s a lot of work to be done to help them, Aly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way I\u2019m probably going to be able to heal properly from this \u2014 at the very least psychologically, mentally \u2014 is to just pour myself into it, just let it devour me and contact as many people as possible to help out others that are still stuck back there,\u201d he said. \u201cWe still mourn that they didn\u2019t come with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Maybe they\u2019re good: FIFA to analyze use of hydration breaks at future World Cups, Infantino says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Islam Aly, the Orlando resident locked up by ICE in Pennsylvania upon his return from Egypt following the death of his father, returned Monday afternoon to Central Florida after he was released Friday on his own recognizance. He explained he had a lot of time to reflect on the 31-hour train ride back to Orlando and hopes to get his life back together aft<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018I lost everything\u2019: Orlando resident returns home after months in ICE custody in Pa. - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=5127\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018I lost everything\u2019: Orlando resident returns home after months in ICE custody in Pa. - Orlando Relocation Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Islam Aly, the Orlando resident locked up by ICE in Pennsylvania upon his return from Egypt following the death of his father, returned Monday afternoon to Central Florida after he was released Friday on his own recognizance. 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