Jasmine Mooney, best known for her role in American Pie, has returned home after spending 12 days in detention at the US-Mexico border while trying to renew her work visa. She described her experience as “inhumane” and “deeply disturbing”, adding that she still has no clear explanation for her arrest.
The 35-year-old Mooney attempted to enter the US from Mexico on March 3 on the advice of her lawyer. She came prepared with a new job offer and the necessary paperwork in hand. However, when she tried to cross San Diego, she was taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I’m still, to be honest, really processing everything. I haven’t slept in a while and haven’t eaten proper food in a while, so I’m just really going through the motions,” she told reporters upon arriving at Vancouver International Airport.
Mooney added, “I still don’t even know how I’m home. My friends and my family and the media are the reason, I think, that I’m home.”
“I do not wish it upon anyone. No one deserves to go through what I witnessed,” an emotional Mooney further said.
‘Slept on mat without blanket’
Mooney, co-founder of ‘Holy! Water’ – a brand that sells ‘full-spectrum hemp’ drinks, recalled being forced to sleep on a mat without a blanket for two days, likening the experience to being treated like a “dead body”.
“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. I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane,” Mooney told KGTV 10.
‘Forced to stay awake for 24 hours’
Mooney also revealed that over the course of 12 days, she was transferred between three different facilities without being given any clear explanation for her detention.
She recalled losing weight due to the poor quality of food, which she refused to eat. She also recounted how she and 30 other women were abruptly moved to a facility in Arizona in the middle of the night. During the transfer, she was kept in chains and forced to stay awake for 24 hours.
Why was she detained?
The exact reason for her detention remains unclear, but Mooney was allegedly told she was “unprofessional” because her visa paperwork was missing a formal letterhead. “They told me I was unprofessional because I didn’t have a proper letterhead on my paperwork,” Mooney said.
When asked if US President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are to be blamed for her detention, she said that she cannot speculate: “I don’t want to point fingers at anything. I really don’t know. But, obviously, people can speculate what they want.”