A 21-year-old Provincetown student and employee of the local police department who is an immigrant was released Thursday after being held at Logan Airport’s Terminal E for 44 hours.
Carlos Maldonado Valle was flying home on a domestic flight from a vacation in Puerto Rico when another passenger suffered a medical emergency, forcing the flight to divert to Bermuda. That made the flight an international flight, and passengers landed at Logan’s Terminal E.
Maldonado Valle was not allowed to leave the airport with his friends, and was detained by Customs and Border Protection in an area of Terminal E, according to his attorney, Rachel Self.
He was released shortly after noon on Thursday, according to a text message from Self.
Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately reply to questions from GBH News.
Maldonado Valle had been in a secondary screening area at Logan Airport since approximately 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, without the ability to communicate with his mother or legal counsel, according to an emergency habeas corpus petition filed Wednesday.
On Wednesday evening, U.S. District Judge Julia E. Kobick issued an emergency order prohibiting federal authorities from removing him from the U.S. or transferring him outside Massachusetts for at least 72 hours after the order was docketed. This allows for another judge to be assigned to assess the petition.
Maldonado Valle is a graduate of Cape Cod Regional Technical High School and a student at Cape Cod Community College, where he is pursuing a criminal justice degree. He works part-time and has volunteered with the Provincetown Police Department, where he hopes to become a full-time police officer. The Department has shared his work on Facebook in years past.
Provincetown Town Manager Alex Morse and Police Chief Gregory Hennick both submitted letters supporting his immediate release.
In a letter to the court, Provincetown Police Chief Gregory Hennick described how Valle Maldonado’s work performance “truly shined” during Winter Storm Hernando in February 2026 as he worked in an emergency shelter for impacted residents.
“I witnessed Carlos’ performance and the level of service he provided for community members in need. He again stood out amongst his peers, and even some police officers assigned to the shelter— I am advocating for Carlos to be released for all these reasons,” Hennick wrote.
Maldonado Valle was born in Honduras and came to the U.S. when he was 10 with his mother. He has a Special Immigration Juvenile visa that was approved Oct. 1. Such visas are for certain young people who need immigration protection because they have been abandoned, abused, or neglected by one or both of their parents.
He is now able to pursue a green card.
“He is now grown into a young man who wears a uniform, protects his neighbors, and dreams of becoming a police officer. And he has done everything that we ask of young people in this country, and now because his airplane stopped to help someone in need, he’s sitting in federal custody instead of being home with his mom,” said Self in a Wednesday night interview.
Self says he has no criminal background. GBH News couldn’t find any criminal involvement in his past.
“Just as the door finally opens to the future you’ve worked so hard for, you find yourself detained because a stranger on your airplane needed emergency medical care. Carlos didn’t choose to travel internationally. He didn’t create this situation. He was simply trying to get home,” said Self.
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