Another man was taken into custody in Juneau for immigration enforcement purposes and held in Lemon Creek Correctional Center last week.
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Alaska Department of Corrections spokesperson Betsy Holley said a man named Jose Manuel Rivera-Rivera was held at the Juneau prison on a federal custody hold from Wednesday through Friday. He was transferred to Anchorage Correctional Complex on Friday, she said.
Juneau Police Chief Derek Bos told KTOO in an email that U.S. Customs and Border Protection conducted an operation Wednesday near Thunder Mountain Middle School, but said the Juneau Police Department was not involved. After the operation, however, Bos said CBP requested police assistance with a person in its custody.
“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 wrote.
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.”
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It is unclear what federal charges Rivera-Rivera is being held under. According to VINE, an online database of incarcerated people, a 52-year-old man named Jose Rivera is being held at Anchorage Correctional Complex.
Rivera-Rivera 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, and Carlos Jara Medina — were detained and removed from Juneau in 2025. According to the Alaska Department of Corrections, Peter Verkin, a Slovakian man
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.
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