Another man was taken into custody in Juneau for immigration enforcement purposes and held in Lemon Creek Correctional Center this week.
Alaska Department of Corrections spokesperson Betsy Holley said a man named Jose Manuel Rivera-Rivera was at the Juneau prison on a federal custody hold from Wednesday until today. She said he was transferred to Anchorage Correctional Complex Friday.
Juneau Police Chief Derek Bos told KTOO via email that Customs and Border Protection conducted an operation on Wednesday near Thunder Mountain Middle School, but said JPD was not involved. However, after the operation, Bos said CBP requested police assistance with someone in their custody.
He wrote “A JPD officer responded and transported the individual away from the area for Border Patrol and was able to successfully de-escalate the incident.”
Bos directed further questions to Customs and Border Protection. CPB Regional Press Officer Jason Givens said over email the arrest was part of an active investigation and that “no further information is available at this time.”
It is not clear what federal charges Rivera-Rivera is being held under. According to Vine, an online database of incarcerated people, a man named Jose Rivera, aged 52, is being held at ACC.
This is the sixth person held at Lemon Creek under a federal custody hold for immigration purposes since October. Three men — Ernesto Alanzo Haro, Alfredo Gomez-Guzman, Carlos Jara Medina — were detained and removed from Juneau in 2025. According to the Alaska Department of Corrections, a Slovakian man, Peter Verkin, who had been living in Sitka and another Juneau man Darwin Mendez-Cando were detained in February.
One of the six men, Gomez-Guzman is still being held at Lemon Creek Correctional Center. He was originally detained and released to federal custody in November. It’s unclear what led to his return to Juneau. The other four arrests before Rivera-Rivera’s have all been transferred to federal custody outside of Alaska.
