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.
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.
The last time I came through American customs, it was when I was returning from a conference in Spain, and a colleague of mine got detained for 3 hours because he “looked suspicious”. Man’s a fucking engineer, with credentials out the wazoo, but apparently he fidgeted in line or something. Sitting there in the little space available just anxiously waiting for them to release him was harrowing, but I can’t even imagine what he went through. Nobody would tell me shit; in fact, the more I asked about him, the more it felt like they were treating me like a suspect. If they’d ended up deciding that he didn’t pass the sniff test, they could have taken him anywhere, and nobody would know a fucking thing about it for God knows how long.
Man, I’m getting sweaty just reliving that. Fuck I hate this country sometimes.