Jasmine Mooney, right, poses for a selfie with her mom Alexis Eagles in an undated handout image.Alexis Eagles/The Canadian Press
A Vancouver woman being held in an Arizona immigration detention centre has still not spoken with a lawyer or received any information about when she may be released, 10 days after she was arrested while trying to renew a work visa.
B.C. Premier David Eby said Thursday that he is “profoundly concerned” by Jasmine Mooney’s detention in the U.S. and that the federal government should be doing all it can through diplomatic channels to get her home soon.
“I don’t know all the details here, but it certainly reinforces anxiety that many British Columbians have, and many Canadians have, about our relationship with the U.S. right now, and the unpredictability of this administration and its actions,” Mr. Eby said.
Ms. Mooney, 35, entered the U.S. on March 3 at the San Ysidro border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, according to friends and family. She was seeking to get a new TN visa to work as a consultant for a U.S.-based beverage company and opted to apply at the border, which is how she successfully obtained her last visa.
Brittany Kors, Ms. Mooney’s best friend, was text messaging with her during the application process. Ms. Kors described it as a “roller coaster” that spanned several hours and included officials telling her friend that she was ineligible, then eligible again, and then that she had to go to an embassy.
“Then they came back and told her that, because they were denying her, that they have to send her back to Canada,” Ms. Kors said in an interview from Vancouver. “She was looking into booking a flight on her phone and while she was sitting there waiting, they just grabbed her and threw her in a cell.”
Ms. Mooney was held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and spent three nights at that detention centre, friends and family said. She was then handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which transferred her to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego for another three nights, and then again to the San Luis Detention Center south of Yuma, Ariz., where she remained as of Thursday.
Sandra Grisolia, a spokesperson for ICE, said the agency detained Ms. Mooney for not having legal documentation to be in the country and that she was processed in accordance with President Donald Trump’s “Securing our Borders” executive order, dated Jan. 21.
“All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the U.S., regardless of nationality,” Ms. Grisolia wrote in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail on Thursday.
Ms. Mooney has not been charged with a crime and does not have a criminal record.
Global Affairs Canada said consular officials are in contact with authorities in Arizona to gather information and provide consular assistance, but that Ottawa cannot intervene on behalf of Canadian citizens with regard to another country’s entry and exit requirements.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.
Ms. Kors has been communicating with Ms. Mooney through an app that allows prisoners to text with people on the outside. However, Ms. Kors said it is incompatible with Canadian credit cards or phone numbers, so the two are relaying messages through a friend in the U.S.
Ms. Kors described the conditions her friend is enduring as horrible and inhumane.
“It’s a whole bunch of people in one room, a bunch of bunk beds, thin mattresses, I think a not very private bathroom,” she said. “She said the food is really bad and she’s feeling very weak. They’re allowed one little styrofoam cup, and her cup got broken. So she asked for another one, and they said no and didn’t give her another one until way later.”
Alexis Eagles, Ms. Mooney’s mother, has not had any direct contact with her daughter since her detention. She said she feels powerless.
“I’m frustrated, I’m angry, I’m worried sick and I feel guilty crawling into a warm bed every night and knowing that my daughter is in a concrete cell,” Ms. Eagles said in an interview on Thursday.