Yet another green card holder detained! A woman living in the United States for over four decades remains in custody after the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detained her at San Francisco International Airport on April 21. 54-year-old Cliona Ward emigrated from Ireland when she was 12. CBP called her out in Seattle last month when she was coming back from a trip.
Her sister, Orla Holladay told Newsweek, War was “helping to assist our grandmother to go back to Ireland, where my father is currently dying.” The permanent resident in her 50s was held at the airport for three days even though her green card was updated, with expiration date as far as 2033. Holladay said that during those three tumultuous days in airport detention, her sister merely existed off “goldfish and Top Ramen” without any contact with family members.
Green card holder in ICE custody after travel
Following the three-day nightmare, Cliona Ward was released and ordered to deliver necessary documents that could prove her almost 20-years-old criminal record had been wiped clean at San Francisco International Airport’s Customs office. Ward was detained when she finally arrived with the documentation at the airport on Monday. But at least, the conditions at the San Francisco airport had proved to be better than in Seattle, especially since “she has access to better food and water.” Here, she was also allowed to contact her son – an American citizen who is “chronically ill” with Crohn’s disease and has a complex fistulla.
Ward, who has lived in Santa Cruz for more than thirty years, is his “caretaker,” as per NBC Bay Area. “She’s not a criminal. She has a criminal past, which she has atoned for,” exclaimed her sister. The permanent resident of the US has been “full-time employed by a nonprofit organisation.”
Her family, who is pleading her case at SFO Customs, said she struggled with addiction for about five years. Her sister insisted that she has a “painful past.” Nonetheless, her prior history had never before stopped her from travelling freely in and out of the country.
Why was the green card holder detained?
Her prior criminal record stretching from 2003 to 2008 features misdemeanours and felonies. Of the total six cases, two felonies are related to possession of drugs and four dismeanours include “failure to notify DMV [Department of Motor Vehicle] of address change within 10 days,” as per court documents cited by Newsweek.
The felonies associated with drug possession particularly were in December 2007 and January 2008. Her sister stated that Ward has been completely sober for 20-plus years. “The reality of the felony is that she was an addict and she was picked up for possessing the poison that she was putting into her own body,” Holladay said.
Cliona Ward remains in custody because her expungements happened on a state level and not federal, a source told NBC Bay Area on Tuesday night. Legal analyst Steven Clark said, “Prior drug convictions are particularly problematic, even though they’ve been decriminalized under state law. They are very serious under federal law.” And so, prior drug or theft convictions are expected to land one in trouble under the Trump administration’s deportation policies.
“It’s unimaginable that a reportedly expunged, 20-year-old incident could be used as justification for deporting a legal permanent resident who is a productive member of our community,” Democrat Jimmy Panetta from California said in a statement.
“But this is the cruel and unreasonable state of this Administration’s deportation policy. As a former gang prosecutor, I understand and appreciate the need to remove hardened criminals from our communities, but the detention of Cliona Ward—now in her 50s and a Green Card holder—for decades-old crimes that have reportedly been expunged from her personal record is unfathomable and unacceptable.”
Ward is currently in custody at an ICE detention centre in Seattle. She is expected to appear in court for a hearing on May 7.