Canadian entrepreneur and actress Jasmine Mooney, 35, who appeared in 2009’s American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, faced detainment by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The now- co-founder of Holy! Water wellness brand opened up about her experience, dubbing it “inhumane.” Many officers even wondered how a Canadian citizen ended up detained by ICE.
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It all started with a trip back to Canada
Mooney went back home to Vancouver, Canada last November when she was surprised to learn that her three-year work visa had been revoked.
At first, she was planning to travel back to San Ysidro, California with new job paperwork to get it renewed and be able to reenter the United States.
Her lawyer advised her against her initial plan
Mooney’s immigration lawyer, Len Saunders, didn’t recommend that Mooney go to San Ysidro, where she had first received her visa.
Yes, in the past, things were “simple,” but now, the shift in the political atmosphere after US President Donald Trump won the elections made Saunders wary of this plan.
He recommended that she go through the northern border instead
“Look, if you are my client, I would probably advise you to do this on the northern border. I just have a bad feeling from when the new administration took over,” Saunders told both Mooney and CityNews Vancouver.
Mooney got detained in San Ysidro
Saunders said, “If you get denied a visa, they just deny you entry, and you’re on your way, and you come back with whatever’s missing.”
However, that wasn’t the case with Mooney, as she got detained by ICE on the spot and was held for three nights at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego.
Mooney opened up about how it was
“I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days. I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane,” Mooney told ABC News affiliate KGTV.
Even the guards were in shock she was there
“We were up for 24 hours wrapped in chains,” she explained to the outlet. Additionally, she talked to the outlet about how the guards would be surprised that she was detained, saying: “Every single guard that sees me is like ‘What are you doing here? I don’t understand — you’re Canadian. How are you here?’”
She was eventually released
After almost two weeks of being detained, she was finally released. Mooney was sent back to Canadian soil on Saturday, March 16, as her mother, Alexis Eagles, and her friends met her at around midnight at Vancouver International Airport.
