UPDATE (3:51 p.m. March 13, 2025): Stephen Mooney has told the News that Jasmine will be released tomorrow from San Diego and fly back to Canada
ORIGINAL STORY:
A Canadian woman is being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a private detention centre in Arizona, according to her father.
Stephen Mooney told the News on March 13 that his daughter, Jasmine Mooney, was detained at the Tijuana border crossing in Mexico. She had been trying to renew her U.S. visa at that border crossing as she had done previously, Stephen said.
Jasmine, who was born in and grew up in Whitehorse, had been living in California recently while she worked on her company, Holy Water.
Her visa was denied, said Stephen, and ICE detained her.
“It's a common practice to be pulled aside,” he said. “Sometimes they want to check some credentials out, and they pulled her aside. But then this extended into hours in a facility right at the border, and then being held for two days in Tijuana, then moved up to San Diego for another three days, and then now moved to Arizona, and she is on day 11 today.”
Stephen said the family have not been able to get in contact with Jasmine. He said that it took three days to find her location when she was moved from the San Diego facility.
Connections in the U.S. have been able to speak to her, however, he said.
A friend of Jasmine’s in Vancouver has a connection in the U.S., who is able to reach Jasmine through an app only available in the U.S. designed to communicate with those detained in these facilities.
Austin Grabish, a reporter for a news station in San Diego, has also been able to contact Jasmine, said Stephen.
At the privately-run San Luis Detention Centre in Arizona, Jasmine’s conditions are terrible, said Stephen.
She’s being held in a concrete cell with around 30 other women, with no windows, and fluorescent lights on 24 hours a day, he said. There are no beds, and guards are frequently yelling at them, he said.
The Mooney family’s lawyers have not been able to talk with Jasmine, said Stephen.
“She's in cell with 30 other women, she was — they were shackled when they were transported from San Diego, five hour drive across the California border into Arizona to San Luis, Arizona,” said Stephen.
“None of these women are, they're all from different countries, and she is — they're asking her to pass messages back to her family when she gets out because she's the only one that they think has the best chance of getting out and sharing to the families, that these other 30 people, that they're okay.”
These detainees are told that they have a case manager when they enter the system, but Stephen said none of the women have been able to speak with any case managers for the duration of the time that Jasmine has been there.
Global Affairs Canada spokesperson John Babcock told the News on March 12 that they are aware of the situation. However, they said that the government cannot intervene on behalf of Canadian citizens with regard to the entry and exit requirements of another country.
Stephen told the News he had not wanted the issue to become a political point in U.S.-Canada relations. But now, he said, they’re trying everything they can.
“We, through the lawyers, we asked her to sign this waiver that said she's pleading guilty of some sort, and they should automatically deport her, and that's what we're hoping, but she gives the paperwork — and this happened days ago — to the guards, and she has no idea what they do with it.”
He said that the centre she is in is operated by a private corporation.
“There is a game they play because they make money off it. The federal government pays for this, and it's a private company, so they do the moving game, and our lawyers can't even talk to her. And so if they think that a lawyer is on her and they want to move her, they move her, and then they go, oh, sorry, we don’t have her file anymore, you have to wait 'til the ICE system shows up where she shows up, and then you contact that facility.”
“We're trying to just get her out, and pay the consequences of her being banned from the United States. And it can vary at that point, at that detention centre, and that person can say, either it's five, ten, or life, and we don't care. We get her out, and then we battle that remotely with the courts, but anyone who wants to challenge that in the system while they're in detention, could be up to 12 weeks staying in that facility before they see a judge.”
He said they have contacts in Washington who are trying to get her released.
The News has also reached out to ICE and to the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles, California.
ICE responded to the News via email on March 13, saying that Jasmine was detained on March 3 for not having legal documentation to be in the United States.
"Mooney was processed in accordance with the "Securing Our Borders" Executive Order dated January 21," said Sandra Grisolia of ICE in a statement.
"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."
Stephen said his family is hoping for good news regarding Jasmine's situation on March 13, as he said both Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Ontario Premier Doug Ford — who is visiting the U.S. capital that day — are aware of the situation.
Stephen said the family hopes Jasmine isn't moved again and that she can be returned to Tijuana so they can arrange her travel home to Canada as soon as possible.
Contact Talar Stockton at talar.stockton@yukon-news.com
