Canadian-Born Dentist Arrives for Green Card Interview, Leaves in ICE Custody

Edited by Dentaltown staff

Dr. William Lizardo showed up for his green card interview hoping to move closer to permanent residency. When it ended, the officer who had been questioning him stepped out of the room and returned with two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Lizardo, a Canadian-born dentist, left the downtown Minneapolis office in ICE custody on Oct. 23, CBS Minnesota reported. His attorney, David Whalen, was in the room for both the interview and the arrest.

Lizardo and his wife, Lauren, met at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry and married shortly after graduating. They have an 18-month-old daughter. Lauren Lizardo sponsored her husband’s green card application, which was denied in January.

The couple couldn’t afford a lawyer the first time, Lauren Lizardo said, so they reapplied with Whalen on the case. He told the station Lizardo was “probably the best candidate I’d ever had.” Because he hasn’t been authorized to work, she said, Lizardo has been volunteering at a low-cost dental clinic in Burnsville, Minnesota.

The family says the arrest was the first they knew of a deportation order. According to Lauren Lizardo, the order followed a missed hearing before an immigration judge, and the notice to appear was mailed in February to a Virginia address the couple had moved away from more than two years earlier. The couple had filed paperwork to update their address after moving back to Minnesota from the East Coast, Bring Me The News reported.

She told the station the couple checks his online immigration case portal every day and receives U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services mail at their current home in Victoria, Minnesota. He was fingerprinted by immigration officials in recent months, she said, and no one mentioned a removal order. Whalen told the station the error was plainly the government’s.

ICE gave the station a different account. In an Oct. 27 statement, the agency said Lizardo was arrested after a records check turned up a final order of removal and that he had overstayed his lawful entry into the country. ICE said USCIS denied his application in January, an immigration judge ordered him removed March 26, and a new or pending request for relief does not halt enforcement of a removal order. The statement did not address the family’s claim about the wrong address.

Whalen said he planned to file an emergency motion seeking Lizardo’s release. No decision on his release had been reported as of Oct. 27.

Sources:
CBS Minnesota (WCCO), “Canadian-born dentist taken into ICE custody at green card interview in Minneapolis, his wife says,” Oct. 23, 2026, updated Oct. 27, 2026: cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/canadian-born-dentist-ice-custody-minneapolis
Bring Me The News, via Yahoo News, “Minnesota dentist arrested by ICE at green card meeting, separated from family,” Oct. 26, 2026: yahoo.com/news/minnesota-dentist-arrested-ice-green-card-meeting