cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26834396
Family and friends of a Vancouver entrepreneur are demanding answers after she was unexpectedly detained by U.S. immigration officials while attempting to cross the border with a job offer and visa paperwork in hand.
Jasmine Mooney, a 35-year-old business consultant and co-founder of a drink brand, has been detained for 11 days under what her supporters describe as “inhumane conditions,” with no clear explanation of why she was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Eagles, who said she found out about Mooney’s detention through a family friend, noted that her daughter had been working in the U.S. but was detained at the San Ysidro U.S.-Mexico border crossing near San Diego, Calif., on March 3.
Eagles said an immigration lawyer was finally able to reach Mooney late Thursday, but despite having no criminal record and facing no charges, Mooney remains in custody with no clear timeline for release.
“We have no issue with her being denied entry, we have no issue with her initially being detained. But we have a huge issue with the inhumane treatment she is receiving and that she knows nothing, has not been charged and has not been able to speak with us directly,” her mother said.
Eagles said the family has received an update from a third-party that Mooney may have a tentative release date of March 24, which — if true — remains “still too far away.”
“By then, she’ll have been in custody for three weeks,” Eagles said. “That’s twice as long as she’s been there already. And so we want to get her home as soon as possible.”
Mooney was detained by border officials while trying to enter the U.S., as she had previously done successfully when applying for a Trade NAFTA, or TN, work visa.
After spending three nights in detention at the world’s busiest land border, Eagles said her daughter was transferred to a facility in San Diego then to the San Luis Regional Detention Center south of Yuma, Arizona, where she has since been sleeping on the floor of a cell alongside nearly 30 other women.
Eagles said that each time her daughter was transferred, she was handcuffed and in chains.
“I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for 2½ days,” she told a reporter.
As her detention continues, Mooney remains confined to a concrete cell with no natural light, no mats, no blankets, and minimal bathroom facilities.
“Every single guard that sees me is like ‘What are you doing here? I don’t understand — you’re Canadian. How are you here?’” she told ABC News.
“One or two months ago, if CBP officers found an issue with a Canadian’s work visa, the typical route taken is revoking the visa and ordering that person to leave the country,” said Neitor. “To detain someone like this would have been considered extreme not long ago, but’s it happening much more frequently nowadays.”
Neitor noted that while there is no limit on how long U.S. immigration authorities can detain a non-U.S. citizen, individuals have the legal right to talk to a lawyer while in detention.
The war on Canada hasn’t even started yet and the US is already taking hostages. Despicable!
Thanks for the extensive quote, but that’s not even the worst part of the article. The second half outlines how the facility she is being held in is a privately-run prison. They get paid per detainee, and when the Biden administration was not detaining many people, the prison was losing money. But now, it’s doing well. Yay for them, I guess?
And is it just me, or are all the shenanigans lately with people being detained unnecessarily at the land borders? If any foreigners need to come to the US for any reason, they might want to buy a plane ticket. Yes, it gives immigration officers all your info ahead of time, but maybe that’s a good thing?
I still wouldn’t trust 'em.
I’d swear they’re testing the limits how what they can get away with. It’s only a matter of time before they start detaining and imprisoning US citizens under the guise of terrorism or something just for speaking out against the orange fuhrer and Elmo.
Already happening.
They’ve already started with permanent residents.
It’s like America is TRYING to start some shit.
I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone it’s bullshit, and this is getting overzealous, making an example of someone. If you read all the details in the articles about this though, it appears that she was doing something borderline or outright illegal to begin with, and I’m finding it difficult to feel sorry for her in this instance.
She was advised by a lawyer not to cross the border the way she did and at the place where she did it, and she ignored that advice. She was on TN visa which was revoked back in November, yet she was supposedly investing in a startup? Wouldn’t that mean you should seek E2 or similar visa, what could have flagged her for the cancellation her original TN one?
I feel more sorry for the hiker from Germany, even if she may have been trying to stay with her boyfriend or whatever, as far as evidence suggests, at least she did more or less everything by the book and had appropriate visa and documents that wouldn’t have otherwise caused her any issues.
Can you link the article that says she might have done something illegal?
https://globalnews.ca/news/11080371/canadian-woman-detained-ice-example-immigration-border/
It doesn’t outright say she was doing something illegal. But it does state she was working on her own business, another article mentioned it as well, that she was investing, feel free to use your non-american search engine of choice to find more. And that’s not what TN visa is for. I can imagine it would be easily abused (and likely is) by investing in your own business and sponsoring yourself, if the amount you invested isn’t enough to get you through the threshold for investor visa - which has been increased recently.
Multiple lawyers are quoted suggesting it was not a good idea to do what she did, one of them directly advising her, and hat she wouldn’t have had the same issue at Canada border, that just screams arrogance to me.
I’m not defending what US did here, but it’s like with boycotting US products…oh suddenly shopping in all those big corporation shops in Canada is fine as long as they fuck us over with Canadian products? It’s gotten real quiet about that real quick. Assholes can be on both sides, just different sizes, doesn’t mean you must support either.
Reading the article it does not appear she was doing anything illegal or fishy like you pointed out. She was just getting her work visa renewed at the San Ysidro Port of Entry along the mexico boarder, which she has done successfully before in the past. You do this by crossing into mexico and then crossing back.
Relevant lines from the article
Mooney moved to Los Angeles in summer 2024, working on her business with a three-year work visa, which she applied for successfully by entering the U.S. from Mexico. She was trying to do the same thing after her first visa was unexpectedly revoked in November.
Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer based in Blaine, Wash., told Global News that he is not Mooney’s lawyer but he did speak to her a few weeks ago after being referred by a fellow client.
He said he is familiar with the San Ysidro Port of Entry and has referred clients who are in that area to cross into Mexico and then come back in order to get their visas renewed.
“When she told me she was going there, I advised her not to, only because of the current political climate,” he said.
Saunders said Mooney told him she had been to that border crossing before and everything was fine and she was confident about getting the visa.
What exactly is illegal in crossing a border station, that would justify being locked up in a prison near the Mexico border? If your paperwork doesn’t suffice, you should simply not be granted entry. Not be thrown in some jail that makes money off of people being locked up in there. If you can’t feel sorry for her, there’s clearly something wrong with your sense of empathy This is just the Trump administration harassing Canadians for not bending over backwards.
