I’m the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I’m the Canadian who was detained by ICE for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped
I was stuck in a freezing cell without explanation despite eventually having lawyers and media attention. Yet, compared with others, I was lucky
Summary
Canadian citizen Jasmine Mooney was detained by ICE for two weeks despite having a valid U.S. work visa. Stopped at the San Diego border, she was abruptly arrested, denied legal counsel, and held in freezing cells before being transferred to a private detention center.
She witnessed systemic inefficiencies, inhumane conditions, and detainees trapped in bureaucratic limbo.
After media attention and legal intervention, Mooney was released.
Her experience highlights the profit-driven nature of private detention centers and the broader failures of U.S. immigration enforcement under Trump’s administration.
She was abducted and tortured by the US government. That's the plain, simple, horrific truth.
ICE is our very own Gestapo.
never change leemy.
24 hour light is considered torture. Imprisoning someone without telling them why, how long, or what should happen next is also considered torture. They are literal torture techniques practiced in countries without human rights.
Then there's the stories of people needing medical attention after border patrol "interrogated" them.
This. Is. Not. Normal.
Okay, so at what point are we allowed call a Nazi a Nazi, huh? Is it when they Seig Heil? Because according to conservative media, no. What about when they idolize Nazis? What about when they start doing Nazi shit, dismantling due process, indefinitely detaining and disappearing people who were just trying to follow the rules like this woman? Mind you, I'm not asking for your input, Nazis never argue in good faith, I'm just calling you out on your bullshit.
never stop hating human rights abuses, miscarriages of justice, false imprisonment without due trial, torture, kidnapping, and tyranny? You got it, boss.
Would you have preferred they use a euphemism like "enhanced interrogation?"
It felt like you were kidnapped because you WERE
Sure wouldn't be a shame if something happens to Damon Hininger, current CEO of Core Civic.
"I've worked at CoreCivic for 32 years, and this is truly one of the most exciting periods of my career," CEO Damon Hininger said on the company's earnings call.
Throw these parasites in their own prisons.
We need a left wing version of the "take back our border" group to "take back our reputation" by driving to these detention centers and cutting some fences and shit.
What an f'ing disgrace. She went to an American government office to apply legally for a visa. The absolute worst consequence should have been "we're sorry, we can't process your Visa and you'll need to return to your home country."
That's it.
This is a minor point compared to her suffering, but also, what an f'ing waste of taxpayer money. Some private facilities got good money I'm sure to lock this innocent lady up.
We were reminded by the last two months or so that it's only a waste of taxpayer money if it doesn't go directly to the pocket of some rich dude.
"rich dude."
Hey, whoa whoa whoa, there are plenty of elitest female grifters as well! Equal'ish opportunity! (only for grifting tho).
/s
Yes, that's detailed at the end of the article.
I'm only like half way through. This one makes me see enough red I'm having to read it in chunks. Just found out about the poor pastors JFC take a wrong turn and straight to jail and it's not funny.
edit: It just gets worse and worse. In a halfway decent world reading this story would feel like jumping the shark not business as usual.
This is the very significant part:
The reality became clear: Ice detention isn’t just a bureaucratic nightmare. It’s a business. These facilities are privately owned and run for profit.
Companies like CoreCivic and GEO Group receive government funding based on the number of people they detain, which is why they lobby for stricter immigration policies. It’s a lucrative business: CoreCivic made over $560m from Ice contracts in a single year. In 2024, GEO Group made more than $763m from Ice contracts.
At this point Canada should be playing hard ball. Ban all visas from anyone working for those companies, or anyone who delivers services to those companies for as long as they work for those companies. If they lie about who they work for, the ban is permanent and they personally are not allowed to set foot in Canada ever.
If a doctor has his license suspended and is not able to practice medicine in a normal hospital/doctors office, they are allowed to keep practicing medicine in prison systems. Poof, cut the costs of real medical doctors by employing those no one else can/will.
ideal next Luigi candidates
There is a place for Capitalism. Prisons, Hospitals, Insurance, police and mental health facilities, to name a few, are not the place.
It is if you're a billionaire and want to be an even bigger billionaire.
There is a place... in hell
It remembers me to that Fry and Laurie bit: https://youtu.be/oy3iTVwJmxk (starts by 0:28)
Gotta love (A Bit of) Fry and Laurie.
Thanks for the laughs 😝
[N]o matter how flawed the system, how cruel the circumstances, humanity will always shine through.
Even in the darkest places, within the most broken systems, humanity persists. Sometimes, it reveals itself in the smallest, most unexpected acts of kindness: a shared meal, a whispered prayer, a hand reaching out in the dark. We are defined by the love we extend, the courage we summon and the truths we are willing to tell.
idk this woman, but I'm so proud of her for using this media attention to do the right thing in a horrific situation.
The pictures of letters her cellmates gave her to get to their families, the moment where a wife sees her husband in the detention cells after being separated with no contact for weeks, the dehumanizing assembly line pregnancy tests.
It's a hard fucking read, but everyone should take 10-15 minutes and read the whole thing. This is basic knowledge of the system everyone in the world should be aware of, told by someone who has less to fear in reprisals than most of the folk who manage to escape.
Thanks for encouraging me to read the whole thing - I only skimmed first - well worth it
Wow, what a story. The kind of thing you'd expect from a 3rd world shithole country which I guess the USA is becoming.
Has been for quite a while, it's just that Americans have been told they're number 1 for so long and most of them don't travel so they don't see anything else.
Excuse me, that's my exceptionalism you're insulting right now! *Cackles and coughs in underinsured*
I highly recommend foreign travel. For example Colombia seems to be completely developed in some places and stuck in the 1950's in other places.
She actually has had it better than a lot of people on the last Trump administration...
Inhabitant of a 3rd world country here
I don't think "kidnapped and tortured by the government" is a thing we've done much of since the US stopped funding our far right dictatorship in the 80s (and the military immediately fucked off and 'let democracy take its course' when the funding dried up).
.... Let us not speak of what our criminal factions get up to though.
So I've always wondered,
Are criminal factions avoidable in whatever country that is?
Like here in the US we always hear random horror stories about Mexican cartels, but we almost never hear about crimes elsewhere in the world. Honestly, I've kind of assumed that crime is a made up American thing to put minorities in jail.
I haven't done any international travel for the last few years, but I used to do it a decent amount for work, and lemme tell you: the worst part of those trips wasn't the long / cramped plane flights; it was going through US customs.
I'm a US citizen, but every time I went through those lines, it felt like I was passing through a military checkpoint into occupied territory. Every time I went through that experience, it made me hate what our country has become just that little bit more.
Traveled to Rome recently (as US citizen). Walked no more than 10 minutes from the gate, was 5th in line to one of a half dozen or so automated camera/scanner customs gates, and cleared customs within 15 minutes of landing.
Returned to the US, walked for 20 minutes through a maze of twisty passages to get to the customs hall, where I stood in line for another 30 minutes to get to one of a half dozen or so checkpoints where an agent scanned my passport, told me to stare at the camera, and eventually, maybe even grudgingly, welcomed me home.
1st/2nd/3rd world terminology becoming increasingly outdated as America becomes aligned with Russia and Europe and Canada distance themselves.
The "correct" modern terms are Global North and Global South. But 1st/2nd/3rd are taking on a new meaning of Highly Developed/Developing/Undeveloped. Cold War era political scientists are raging against it but it's much more easily understood than Global North and Global South which also extend the idea that Northern countries are superior. (The given reasoning is that Northern countries are better developed on average, but come on...)
Yeah, I was thinking that myself as I wrote my comment.
Nazi USA is a shithole.
having been to countries some consider third world shitholes, it's far worse (edit: in the USA) IMO.
In many low income countries this would have been a $50 bribe and 5 minutes to resolve (which could mean being deported).
It felt like a kidnapping because it was factually a kidnapping.
Oh she's out! Neat! What about that German tattoo-artist?
State violence is still violence, the main difference being that it's supported by a bunch of documents containing rules for all supposedly agreed to by Society (i.e. Laws) and an set of processes (the Justice System) to supposedly make such violence only ever be exercised when required, and in a fair and proportinate way, hence why such set of processes includes things like "Innocent until proven guilty" and more generally "Due Process" (elements which the simpletons often dislike since for them Justice is as just a way to hurt people they dislike, exactly as Trump is using it).
So yeah, emprisionment differs only from kidnapping if it's done fairly and proportionatelly, which is what a functional Justice System is supposed to guarantee but often fails to, and the non-functionality of the Justice System in the US has become far too frequent, especially when it comes to non-nationals (though we also see it in the de facto immunity for the ultra rich), especially under Trump. Without the whole fairness and proportionate component, emprisionment is just kidnapping with a bit of performative (theatrical, even) folklore to make it look like the socially approved version.
Freezing cells are actual torture