An autistic seven-year-old girl and her mother have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while they were traveling home from a baby shower. Canada-born Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Lucas were taken into custody in Sarita, Texas, after being stopped at a checkpoint close to the US-Mexico border on Saturday. They have been forced to sleep on mats in a detention center since, according to US citizen Edward Warner, who is Tania's husband and Ayla's father. The trio live in Kingsville, Texas, and they had been on their way home from a baby shower in Raymondville when they passed through a checkpoint and the parents were asked for their paperwork.
From Bodybuilder to Detainee
'I presented mine, and she presented her Texas driver's license, her work visa and her actual visa,' Edward told CTV News. 'After that, they took her in, saying that they needed to fingerprint her to get more information, and she never came back out.' Around 20 minutes later, officers came back outside and asked to take Lucas in for fingerprinting as well. Like her mother, she never came back out. Warner, who is a bodybuilder, and her daughter have been living legally in the US for the past five years after they moved from British Columbia. They are going through the process to get their green cards. Officers told Edward there was a problem with Warner's Employment Authorization Document number, also known as an EAD number, but the stepfather told the outlet he doesn't know the full extent of his loved ones' detention.
Mats and Space Blankets
'It's scary, it's really frustrating, especially when they have paperwork that's good, and it doesn't come up in the system as being good,' he told CTV News. 'It didn't come up as having paperwork at all.' The mother and daughter's fingerprints had to be sent to Washington, D.C. The agency there did not clear them to be released, so they were taken to the notorious Rio Grande Valley Central Processing Center in McAllen. Edward has been 'horrified' by the conditions his wife and daughter are undergoing, including using 'space blankets' while sleeping on mats. 'This food is terrible...it's overcrowded, very loud, and they're just very stressed out right now,' he told CTV. Edward and Warner’s mother, Heather Fleck, worry about Lucas, who is on the spectrum. 'It’s no place for a seven-year-old to be,' Edward said. 'This is going to be devastating,' Fleck told the outlet.
Edward has gone to Global Affairs Canada, but they did not help, as his wife and daughter are not looking to go back to their home country. He also hired a lawyer and started a GoFundMe to help with the expenses of getting his wife and daughter back. 'It's very frustrating. It's lonely, it's quiet. I don't care for it,' he told the outlet.
Another Canadian living in America has also been detained in Texas after returning home from a business trip in Mexico. Curtis Wright, 39, who lives in Houston, Texas , was grabbed by ICE agents and taken to the South Texas Processing Center last November.
The oil and gas worker, originally from Edmonton in Alberta, was flagged by authorities after touching down at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston after a business trip in Mexico. His father, Jim Wright, spoke with CTV News and said the reason his son is being held stemmed from a minor drug possession conviction dating back two decades. According to the elder Wright, who also lives in Texas, his son was found to have a lone Xanax pill in the backseat of his truck 22 years ago when he was in high school. He also said that he was hit with a misdemeanor charge involving a handgun being found in a car he was driving, and driving impaired eight years ago. Speaking from the facility, Wright told the outlet: 'None of it has been enjoyable. The separation from family has been miserable.' The father-of-three added that the conditions inside are 'pretty awful', describing it as 'run down' and filled with 'mold, dirt and grime.'