Tag Archives: Jasmine Mooney

Guardian: Irish woman detained by US immigration released after 17 days in custody

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An Irish woman who was detained by US immigration authorities because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years has been released after 17 days in custody.

Cliona Ward, 54, who has lived legally in the US for decades, emerged on Wednesday from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility at Tacoma in Washington.

After visiting her sick father in Ireland she had been detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April, causing an outcry in Ireland and the US and a campaign for her release.

Last week a California judge agreed to an application for the original convictions to be formally overturned in a manner that would be recognised at a federal level, paving the way for her release, according to Ward’s lawyers.

The incarceration left Ward traumatised but she was thankful for the support and is now recuperating, her sister, Orla Holladay, wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Cliona is finally in her own bed and we are all ready for some quiet and reflection.”

Irish woman detained by US immigration released after 17 days in custody
An Irish woman who was detained by US immigration authorities because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years has been released after 17 days in custody. Cliona Ward, 54, who has lived legally in the US for decades, emerged on Wednesday from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility at Tacomain Washington. After visiting her sick father in Ireland she had been detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April, causing an outcry…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/irish-woman-detained-by-us-immigration-released-after-17-days-in-custody/ar-AA1EoD48

USA Today: Tourists detained by ICE say they were treated like ‘the worst criminal’

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Uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the U.S. immigration detention system

A British backpacker. A Harvard researcher. A Canadian actress. An Australian mixed martial arts coach. Dozens of international college students.

The Trump administration’s sweeping immigration-and-visa crackdown has begun ensnaring a class of people long-accustomed to being welcomed with open arms into the United States.

And those uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the often-harsh U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention system, where people can be held without charge indefinitely, sometimes in shocking conditions, or abruptly removed from the country.

This type of treatment has long been the case in ICE detention, but the people held by the government often didn’t have the resources ‒ the access, language or middle-class expectations ‒ to denounce the conditions.

Now, with President Donald Trump’s crackdown, native English speakers, people with PhDs, and others are getting the word out to a broader public about a system they describe as arbitrary and punishing ‒ although ICE detention is not supposed to resemble prison.

“It’s insane how easily someone can take away your freedom, lock you in a federal prison, without a clear reason. No explanation. No warning,” ….

Tourists detained by ICE say they were treated like ‘the worst criminal’
Uncommon detainees are bringing new attention to the U.S. immigration detention system

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/12/ice-tourist-detention-border-trump-immigration/82740260007

Jasmine Mooney, Canadian actress, jailed 12 days after trying to renew visa at border, deported

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Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney said she felt like she had been kidnapped and forced to take part in “some sort of insane . . . psychological, social experiment”. She spent 12 days in detention after trying to renew an expired work visa at a border.

Avoid Trump’s Amerika. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.

‘I still have nightmares’: the tourists shackled and jailed for weeks at US borders

Becky Burke, Welsh backpacker, jailed for 19 days, deported “in leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs”

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Others have included Becky Burke, a Welsh backpacker who was detained for 19 days. Her parents complained she was taken to the airport for deportation “in leg chains, waist chains and handcuffs” after being accused of travelling on the wrong visa. “She’s not Hannibal Lecter,” her father Paul Burke told the BBC.

Avoid Trump’s Amerika. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.

‘I still have nightmares’: the tourists shackled and jailed for weeks at US borders

Lucas Sielaff, German tourist, shackled, interrogated, jailed for 16 days, deported.

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Lucas Sielaff was in a car queue waiting to cross from Mexico into the US when a border guard, seeing his German passport, began bombarding him with questions.

The 25-year-old tourist, who had been travelling with his American fiancée, was shackled, taken in for questioning, and then interrogated for hours. He spent 16 days in detention before being escorted to the airport and allowed to fly back to Germany earlier this month.

“I still have nightmares [about the experience] and I’m not yet back to normal,” Sielaff told the Financial Times. “I’m trying to process everything properly. It’ll take a while.”

Sielaff, who had a valid visa waiver entry permit and had visited the US several times previously, is one of a string of high-profile cases of European and Canadian tourists to have suffered hostile treatment at the hands of border guards since Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Avoid Trump’s Amerika. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.

‘I still have nightmares’: the tourists shackled and jailed for weeks at US borders