A Canadian woman who once graced TV screens as an actress is now speaking out about a terrifying real-life experience that she says felt like being “kidnapped” — not by criminals, but by U.S. immigration officials.
Throughout the two weeks of detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) Jasmine Mooney spent her time in custody because she tried crossing the border at what she thought would be innocuous.
The 35-year-old business consultant based in California faced a twelve-day ordeal after making a basic border crossing attempt at Mexico which became her twelve-day marathon of misfortune.
According to Mooney she had previously traveled between Canada and the United States without problems because she entered the U.S. through a NAFTA professional visa.
Mooney went back to Canada after the initial visa denial from border officers confused about her application point at San Diego.
After working for a few months she filed another visa application for border entry while believing she had properly followed every regulation.
But when she returned to the immigration office at San Diego, she encountered what she described as “confused opinions” about her case.
Mooney received instructions from an officer to submit her application at the consulate thus agreeing with the request while an unexpected complication arose.
“I was told, ‘You didn’t do anything wrong. The officer told Mooney through her The Guardian essay ‘You are not in trouble and you are not a criminal.'”
The security officer provided reassurance but soon after Mooney received the assurance she was forced to put her hands against the wall then searched like a criminal then stripped of everything she owned.
The complete absence of explanation during her detention together with denied access to legal help led Mooney into an ICE detention center where she was assigned to a freezing small cement cell illuminated by harsh fluorescent bulbs while confined with five other women.
She spent two whole days in that cell and obtained food breaks but lacked access to telephone calls until the third day passed.
The officials presented her with re-entry application forms through which she could obtain a consulate process yet she underwent the process promptly enough.
As Mooney signed those papers while experiencing extreme fatigue she decided to cover the cost of her own flight back home since she thought this would finally solve her problems.
But instead, she was transferred to a more severe facility, processed into what she described as “real jail,” and bounced through different centers for days.
According to her memory she found herself in what felt like a psychological testing ground where her family frantically worked to free her from this isolation.
“From the moment I arrived, I begged every officer I saw to let me pay for my own ticket home,” she said.
Mooney gained freedom from her unsafe jail conditions after members of her family network including politicians intervened on her behalf until she returned to San Diego to be with her relatives.
The ordeal felt unreal to her because she had the good fortune of possessing legal representation and media affiliation.
Then, she made a chilling observation: “Imagine what this system is like for every other person in there.”
According to her shocking findings ICE detention involves more than bureaucratic complications because it operates as a profit-making business.
“These facilities are privately owned and run for profit,” she said. “It’s a business. This is not just my story. Thousands of individuals experience this similar situation.
A spokesman for ICE verified Mooney’s detainment because she lacked proper documentation according to orders which the Trump administration’s former president established.
Feature Image Credit: (Instagram/jasminemooney)
