A Penticton woman and her seven-year-old daughter have been detained by U.S. border officials in Texas for a week, despite her having a U.S. work visa that doesn’t expire until 2030.
Tania Warner and her daughter, Ayla, don’t know why they are being held or when they will be released, her American husband, Edward Rose, said by phone from their home in Kingsville, Texas, on Friday.
He sent a copy of a U.S. “employment authorization” card that was issued to Warner last year and has an expiry date of June 8, 2030.
“They are saying she overstayed her visa,” said Rose, referring to officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
Rose, Warner and Ayla, Warner’s daughter and Rose’s stepdaughter, were returning home from a baby shower on March 14, when they passed through a U.S. border patrol checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, in the southeast part of the state.
After reviewing their documents, Warner and Ayla were fingerprinted and then detained.
“They ran my licence and said I was free to go,” said Rose, who is a a tattoo artist.
They were taken to an ICE detention facility at Ursula and later transferred to a centre at Dilley, which Rose said was better than the first facility.
“It’s only six beds to a room,” he said of the Dilley facility. “At least now they have a bed instead of being on the pissy floor.”
“It’s a small step in the right direction,” he said on his Facebook page about the move.
He speaks to Warner by phone, he said Friday.
“They’re stressed out,” he said. “It’s no place to be.”
He said he has “no idea,” why they were detained.
She had her work visa and their passports, he said.
“Nothing came back from (Washington) D.C., where they sent the fingerprints,” he said.
The mother and daughter were given the option to self-deport, Rose told The Canadian Press, and were told that if they accepted they would be moved to a more comfortable facility.
“I think that’s why they leave the lights on all night and give them space blankets and everything like that,” he said. “I think they want them to self-deport because it’s less paperwork or something.”
That’s not an option for them, Rose said.
“I need them just as much as they need me.”
The two met online about five years ago and Warner moved to Texas and they were married about a year later.
Warner, who is a self-employed fitness and nutrition coach, is in the process of getting her U.S. Immigration “green card,” for permanent residency.
Rose said she’s working on her next steps from detention with an immigration lawyer he hired.
He has started a GoFundMe account to raise US$12,000 to pay for the legal bills. It has raised about US$10,000 late Friday.
He said the detention is particularly tough on Ayla, his stepdaughter, because she has autism.
He said he has called the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
An email sent to Global Affairs Canada media branch on Friday afternoon wasn’t returned.
Global Affairs Canada said in an emailed statement to the Canadian Press that the department “is aware of multiple cases of Canadians currently or previously in immigration-related detention in the U.S. and has received requests for information and assistance from individuals and their family members.”
A request for comment emailed to the ICE media department was auto-returned with an out of office message for the weekend.