From elite IDF tech unit to ICE custody: The bizarre case of Avishay 'Allison' Alon
The former Unit 81 engineer went on to work at Amazon and Microsoft before a kidnapping conviction, a prison battle over his gender transition and, ultimately, detention by US immigration authorities
Earlier this week, ICE Boston announced that it had arrested Avishay Alon in Concord, New Hampshire, describing the Israeli national as a “criminal illegal alien” whose record included convictions for kidnapping, criminal threatening with a deadly weapon and drug possession.
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The arrest marked the latest turn in a bizarre sequence that saw Alon go from service in an elite Israeli military technology unit and a career at some of the biggest US tech companies to a kidnapping conviction, a battle over his incarceration in a men’s prison and, ultimately, ICE custody.
Alon’s earlier career gave little hint of what was to follow. He served in Unit 81, the highly secretive technological arm of the IDF Intelligence Directorate’s Special Operations Division, which develops software, hardware, cyber tools and other technologies for some of Israel’s most sensitive military operations. After leaving the army, Alon went on to hold senior engineering positions at Amazon and Microsoft and later founded two startups.
By 2024, however, Alon’s life had taken a sharply different course. Alon had begun gender transitioning, adopting the name Allison and receiving hormone therapy. A sentencing memorandum filed by his attorney said that following a breakup and a period of emotional difficulties, Alon began using drugs, including methamphetamine.
The downward spiral culminated in an arrest after he held a man at gunpoint for roughly two hours, apparently convinced that the man had drugged and robbed him. He was later convicted of kidnapping, criminal threatening with a deadly weapon and drug possession, and sentenced to two to six years in prison.
After his conviction, Alon was transferred from a women’s jail unit to a men’s state prison, where he sued over the decision to incarcerate him with male prisoners as well as alleged interruptions to his transition-related treatment.
The convictions brought Alon onto ICE’s radar. The agency lodged a detainer while he was still in New Hampshire custody after determining there was probable cause to believe he was removable from the United States. When Alon was granted parole, the state released him directly into ICE custody rather than onto the street.
Alon is now being held at an ICE detention facility in Folkston, Georgia. ICE has not publicly explained the precise immigration grounds on which it considers him removable from the United States or indicated when his case will be resolved.