B.C. woman held in detention for 11 days after trying to enter U.S. to be released, father says

A B.C. woman who has been detained by U.S. immigration officials for 11 days, after trying to enter the country, will be released on Friday, according to her father.

Speaking to CBC on Thursday afternoon, not long after getting word of Jasmine Mooney's upcoming release from an Arizona detention centre, Stephen Mooney said he's feeling a "lot of relief" — but also a lot of frustration.

"Jasmine's a strong girl, but what she has gone through is … no one should do that," said Stephen, who lives in Whitehorse.

"Just the lack of due process and the lack of communication that we've had through that detention centre, I feel for, of course, not only Jasmine, but the many other people that are in there."

Speaking to CBC News earlier Thursday, Jasmine's mother, Alexis Eagles, said her daughter — who grew up in Yukon and had been living in B.C. until last year — was being detained at the San Luis Regional Detention Center after she recently tried to enter the U.S. from Mexico.

Eagles said Jasmine obtained a three-year work visa for the U.S. last spring and had been living in Los Angeles, working in marketing communications. According to Eagles, Mooney came back to Canada for a visit in November and when she tried to return to the States, her visa was revoked and she was denied entry.

Eagles is less clear on what happened next, but said that Mooney then got "some sort of consulting visa application."

"She attempted to return to the States with the new visa, and she had already been flagged so they just detained her," Eagles said.

"As we understand it, it's because she was entering via Mexico … we believe that had she been entering, tried to enter directly through Canada, they would have just turned her around."

In a Facebook post, Eagles said Jasmine was held at the San Ysidro border crossing for three days after she tried to enter the U.S. on March 3, and was then moved to San Diego before she and others were "forcibly removed from their cells at 3 a.m." and sent to the Arizona facility around March 9.

Eagles said she acknowledges that her daughter "did not make a good decision, that she probably should not have tried to enter the States…. We don't deny that she was detained because of the way she tried to enter the States."

CBC News has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but did not hear back as of Thursday evening.

Detainees were 'treated inhumanely,' says mother

Eagles's concern was with the treatment Jasmine has experienced while in detention, and the fact that it was never clear when or how she might be released. Eagles is also frustrated by how difficult it's been to get information about Jasmine, having to rely on friends in the U.S. for periodic updates.

"She's been moved to three different facilities," Eagles said in an interview from Abbotsford, B.C.

Eagles said the detainees at the San Luis facility have no sleeping mats or blankets or windows, and the lights are on all day and night.

"That's what we have the problem with, the fact that she is being detained longer than we feel is necessary. She is being frequently moved, and they are being treated inhumanely," Eagles said.

On Thursday afternoon, Stephen Mooney said Jasmine is due to be released from the Arizona detention facility on Friday. From there, she will be brought to a detention centre in Tijuana, Mexico, and then flown back to Vancouver on Friday night.

Mooney said his daughter has been "in shackles and handcuffs" the majority of the time she's been in custody. He also said he saw a picture of her on Thursday, and that she had clearly lost some weight.

"You know, 11 days. They don't feed them much," he said.

Mooney believes that some political pressure helped secure his daughter's release, but he didn't offer any more specifics. 

"There were conversations at the highest level, and I would like to think that helped get her released earlier," he said.

"There's 30 other people in her cell that have not even been spoken to by a detention caseworker. So there are people in there whose families don't know where their kids are."

'Profoundly concerned,' says B.C. premier

Speaking to reporters earlier on Thursday, B.C. Premier David Eby said he didn't know all of the details of Mooney's case but said his "heart goes out to this family and this woman," and he urged Canadian officials to work quickly to try to bring Jasmine back to Canada. 

Eby also said he was "profoundly concerned about these kind of actions" by the U.S. administration, saying they "violate the very idea that Canadians are safe in the U.S. when we visit." 

"The nature of our relationship is so fraught right now that this case makes us all wonder, you know, what about our relatives who are working in the States? What about when we cross the border, what kind of experience are we gonna have?" Eby said.

Yukon Premier Ranj Pillai also weighed in on Thursday, with a letter to the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement urging Jasmine's "prompt release," and saying "the treatment of our citizens while in the U.S. must be fair and transparent."

Stephen Mooney says his daughter had moved to L.A. and put "hundreds of thousands of dollars" into a new startup business there. 

It's not clear yet what she might do next, after she arrives in Canada. He describes his daughter as hard-working and "super-resilient," but he wonders if this experience might prompt her to find a "new calling." 

"Of course, we've got to question that now — do you really want to work in the States after this has happened to you?" Stephen said.

"That process down there is terrible, and I believe it's worse because of the new administration, because of Trump … I would be cautious for anyone to go into the States."

Airplay9:47Yukoner held in US to be released

Stephen Mooney says his daughter Jasmine is scheduled to be released by American immigration authorities.