Detained, Discarded, and Forgotten: The Chilling Reality of a Canadian woman in ICE’s Broken System
In the land of the free, where justice is supposedly the foundation of democracy, how does one explain a system that detains people without charge, without trial, and without accountability? How does a Canadian woman with a valid visa—no criminal record, no threats posed—end up shackled, deprived of basic rights, and lost in a bureaucratic maze for two weeks?
This is Trump’s America!
Canadian ‘American Pie’ actress Jasmine Mooney was literally detained by Donald Trump’s ICE agents at the US-Mexico border and jailed for 12 days. And she’s confused as to why.
She was forced to sleep on concrete floors and said that she felt like she… pic.twitter.com/rfHrHb0vaK
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) March 17, 2025
This is not the story of an unfortunate clerical error. It is the story of an immigration system that operates as a profit-driven machine, where detainees are not just statistics but commodities in a billion-dollar industry.
A Normal Day Turns Into a Nightmare
For one woman, a routine visit to the U.S. border became an exercise in helplessness. Having successfully secured her work visa and moved freely between Canada and the U.S. for months, she had no reason to believe anything would be different this time. But an officer at the border flagged her visa as “shady,” questioned her previous application process, and within minutes, revoked her right to enter.
That in itself was frustrating, but the real horror began when she was suddenly told she was being detained. No explanation. No legal counsel. No warning.
One moment, she was a legal visitor. The next, she was being patted down, stripped of her belongings, and locked in a freezing concrete cell with a thin sheet of aluminum foil masquerading as a blanket.
A Broken System That Profits From Suffering
For two days, she had no information. No access to legal aid. No one willing to answer even the simplest question: When can I go home?
Then came the paperwork—documents declaring a five-year ban, presented with the instruction that her signature was irrelevant to the outcome. The decision had already been made.
Soon after, she was transferred—first to another freezing cell, then to the notorious Otay Mesa Detention Center, a for-profit facility where detainees are revenue streams rather than human beings.
Here, she met others trapped in the same system. A woman who had lived in the U.S. for over a decade, detained over a minor visa issue. A pastor and his wife who accidentally took a wrong lane toward Mexico and were imprisoned for it. An Indian student whose three-day visa overstay years ago now rendered her a criminal in the eyes of the U.S. government.
The common thread? None of them had committed crimes. All of them were trapped in an opaque, unaccountable process that functioned with no clear timelines and no regard for basic human dignity.
Who Benefits From This System?
Private detention centers like Otay Mesa and San Luis Regional Detention Center are run by corporations that profit from each detainee held within their walls. Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group have government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Their business model is simple: The longer a person stays in detention, the more money they make.
It’s not about enforcing the law. It’s about maximizing profits.
This woman was lucky—her friends and colleagues mobilized. Lawyers were engaged, media attention surged, and the pressure forced ICE’s hand. She was suddenly released.
But what about those who have no voice? The asylum seekers, the undocumented migrants, the visa holders caught in a bureaucratic trap with no legal representation?
How many more sit in freezing cells, waiting for answers that never come?
The Injustice We Ignore
When she finally landed back in Canada, her nightmare was over. But the system that detained her remains intact. The stories of those still trapped fade into the background, drowned out by the endless churn of political debate over immigration.
If this could happen to her—a Canadian citizen with a valid visa—who else is at risk?
How many more people will be detained without due process? How many more families will be separated? And how long will we continue to look away?
In the end, her story is not just a cautionary tale. It is an indictment of a system that punishes, exploits, and dehumanizes those caught in its grasp. And unless real change comes, it will not be the last.
Also see:
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