SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A Canadian entrepreneur detained by ICE is speaking out after she got arrested while trying to enter the San Diego border to obtain a visa last Monday.
“Every single guard that sees me is like 'What are you doing here? I don't understand - you’re Canadian. How are you here?'” Jasmine Mooney said in an interview from the Arizona immigration detention center she is now fighting to get out of.
Mooney told Team 10 she is appalled by the conditions inside the private for-profit detention facility in San Luis.
“I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane,” she said in an interview with Investigative Reporter Austin Grabish.
Mooney, who previously was working in Los Angeles for a health tonic beverage company on a TN visa, which was revoked, said she went to the border with a new job offer and visa paperwork.
She got her first visa at the San Ysidro border crossing on the advice of a Los Angeles attorney, who met her at the border, she said.
First visa revoked
Mooney, who is the co-founder of the Holy! Water brand, said a U.S. border officer at the Vancouver airport in Canada revoked her first visa when she was visiting home.
“They told me I was unprofessional because I didn't have a proper letterhead on my paperwork," Mooney said.
Mooney said a border officer told her because she had a prior visa revoked, she needed to go to a U.S. consulate to apply for legal status to work in the country again.
She said the officer refused to allow her to go back to Mexico and ordered her to be detained.
One issue border officers may have had with Mooney’s previous U.S. employment is that one drink Holy! Water advertised on its website contains Delta-9 “full spectrum hemp.”
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp, including Delta 9-THC, if the product contained no more than 0.3% THC. Anything more is still considered a controlled substance under federal law.
CBP wouldn’t tell Team 10 the reason for Mooney’s detention, citing privacy restrictions, but said the agency routinely denies travelers from entering the country on 60 different grounds.
The agency noted it treats all travelers with integrity, respect and professionalism.
Mooney disagreed and said she was kept in a cold room at the border by CBP before being arrested by ICE, who placed her at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
“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," she said.
Mooney said the food inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center was awful and claimed in the middle of the night she, along with a group of 30 other women, was rounded up to get transferred to a facility in Arizona.
“We were up for 24 hours wrapped in chains,” she said.
Core Civic, the private company that owns the Otay Mesa facility, said it provides three “nutritious” meals a day to inmates.
“Menus are reviewed and approved on a regular basis by a registered dietitian to ensure appropriate nutrition is provided to those entrusted to our care,” said Brian Todd, a Core Civic spokesman.
The Arizona facility where Mooney is now being housed didn’t return a request for comment from Team 10.
Mooney said she has no idea when she will be released from detention. Her best friend Brittany Kors is trying to put pressure on the Canadian government to intervene.
“I just feel like there has to be more that they can do this. This can't be right. It can't be allowed to happen,” Kors said in an interview from Vancouver.
Kors contacted Team 10 after seeing our reporting on two German citizens who were detained by CBP and then arrested by ICE after trying to enter the San Diego border.
“This just seems like it's such a waste of taxpayer dollars,” said Kors, who was surprised to learn her friend was being held in a for-profit private detention center.
Attorney sees spike in detention cases
Kors has been contacting immigration attorneys and trying to round up support for Mooney from Canada.
“I just feel really helpless… We don't know what the next steps are. We don't even know the reason why they are holding her there.”
San Diego immigration attorney Andrew Neitor said there’s been an anecdotal increase in the number of non-U.S. citizens being detained by immigration authorities.
“Many of the detentions are for reasons that up until a couple of months ago would not have resulted in a person's detention because CBP and ICE have many other options at their disposal, they do not need to detain people,” he said.
Team 10 asked ICE for comment on Tuesday, but by Wednesday afternoon, the agency had not responded.
The Canadian government said it is aware of Mooney’s detention and is working to gather more information from authorities in Arizona.
“Every country or territory decides who can enter or exit through its borders. The Government of Canada cannot intervene on behalf of Canadian citizens with regard to the entry and exit requirements of another country,” said Global Affairs Canada spokeswoman Brittany Fletcher.
Investigative Reporter Austin Grabish can be reached at austin.grabish@10news.com
