"Illegal Alien": Israeli convicted of kidnapping and released from prison arrested by ICE
Avishai Alon, a former Amazon and Microsoft engineer and AI entrepreneur, was transferred to immigration authorities following his parole. According to authorities, he is an illegal alien in the US.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it arrested Avishai Alon, a 34-year-old Israeli, on August 20 in Concord, New Hampshire. The arrest was carried out by the ICE Boston field office.
The agency defined Alon, who identifies as a woman, as an "illegal alien with a criminal record from Israel," but did not disclose how or when he arrived in the U.S., what his previous status was, or what the next step in the immigration process is. According to court documents, Alon was transferred to ICE custody after being paroled from state prison.
According to the sentencing memorandum submitted by his defense attorney, Alon was born in Israel and served in Aman. After his discharge, he worked as a software engineer at Amazon and Microsoft and founded two startups. A professional profile published in 2023 described Alon as having a master's degree and being an AI entrepreneur who lived in Dover, New Hampshire.
The criminal incident occurred on September 13, 2024. According to prosecution documents cited in local media, Alon and his partner Brian Levy lured a person identified by the initials M.P. to Alon's home after Alon suspected the man had spiked a water bottle with the date-rape drug GHB and stolen items from the house. The prosecution claimed the victim was held and interrogated at gunpoint for about two hours. During the event, Alon carried two loaded handguns, one of them equipped with a silencer, and pointed the weapon at the victim.
The incident ended after a police officer arrived at the house following a report from a nearby business about a suspicious car registered to Alon. According to the prosecution, Alon disassembled the weapons and opened the door, at which point the victim took the opportunity to call for help. Police officers entered the house, and a subsequent search found methamphetamine in a bag that also contained Alon's identification and credit cards. Prosecutors argued that this was not "a single momentary lapse in judgment, but a series of criminal decisions."
Alon, who had no prior criminal record, was convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping, criminal threatening, and possession of a controlled substance. On July 7, 2025, he was sentenced to two to six years in state prison. Levy was sentenced to one to five years in prison. The defense requested a sentence of 12 months in county jail, arguing, among other things, that the facility could provide more suitable conditions for Alon, who identifies as a transgender woman and uses the name Allison.
In December 2025, Alon filed a federal lawsuit against the New Hampshire Department of Corrections, claiming he was denied appropriate treatment for gender dysphoria. The lawsuit alleged that the injectable hormone therapy he received in the detention center was replaced with pills in the men's prison, and that he was denied access to razors, tweezers, and women's underwear. It was further alleged that guards addressed him with male pronouns and that his mental state deteriorated. In July, a federal judge allowed some of the claims to proceed but did not rule that they had been proven.
On August 17, the Department of Corrections granted Alon 60 days of sentence reduction, which retroactively moved his parole eligibility date to July 14. The parole board approved his release directly into the custody order issued by ICE. After his attorney argued that the state continued to hold him beyond what was permitted, a judge ordered New Hampshire to explain why he would not be released. The next day, Alon was transferred to ICE. The agency has not yet announced where he is currently being held, whether deportation proceedings have been officially opened against him, or when the next hearing in his case will take place.
