1d ago

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

www.theguardian.com

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 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.

17 comments

to anyone who might be thinking this is no big deal. could you just disappear from your life for 17 days and just pick it back up? would your boss happily understand? would any missed bills just forgive you? this is still a massive penalty; not even to mention the psychological harm this ordeal would levy.
- As someone who could do that: It is still a big deal.
- I worry a lot of people won't learn until the leopard is eating their face, and maybe not even then.
  
  Yep.
  Most US'ians are so blindly occupied with the everyday events of their own little lives that they won't realize/care that it's raining a shitstorm until the shit actually gets on them personally. In quantity.
  🙄 🤡 🤦‍♀️

Trump won the 2024 election on the promise of “the largest deportation operation in American history”, but few anticipated a crackdown on documented immigrants, including visa and green card holders and citizens who have the status by birth or naturalisation, or tourists.
Plenty of people anticipated this. Who's easier to deport when you want to get rid of a big number quickly? Someone living under the radar? Or someone who's right on file and complies with orders to come in? And if there's no due process, you can say they committed any crime you want to justify it. It's not like morality or honesty would stop anyone involved in the process.

Ice are an international terrorist organization
- They're a real bunch of ICE-holes
- Ice is*
  
  lol great gif

17 comments