Summary

“American Pie” actress Jasmine Mooney, a Canadian citizen, was detained by ICE while attempting to renew her work visa at the U.S.-Mexico border on March 3.

She described the experience as a “deeply disturbing psychological experiment,” including sleeping on a mat with “aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body,” being transported in chains, and receiving inedible food.

Officials allegedly told her she was “unprofessional because I didn’t have a proper letterhead” on her paperwork.

After her release, Mooney credited media attention and her support network for securing her freedom.

  • Colloidal@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    59 minutes ago

    She spent 11 days detained.

    “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.” She went on to describe one incident when she and 30 other women were moved in the middle of the night to a facility in Arizona. During the ordeal, she was forced to be “up for 24 hours wrapped in chains.”

    From CBC.CA (Eagles is her mother’s surname):

    Eagles said the detainees at the San Luis facility have no sleeping mats or blankets or windows, and the lights are on all day and night.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    11 minutes ago

    Are these the privately owned detention centers? All I can say the USA has several Dachau’s and it could become worse.

      • Guns0rWeD13@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        2 minutes ago

        this. the system is broken. the DOJ is owned. trump et al are above the law. they knew going in that the entire charade only operates under the threat of violence and they currently have a monopoly on that. if you don’t have stock in violence, you don’t have a place at the table. we all need to buy some stock.

  • StopTouchingYourPhone@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    39
    ·
    3 hours ago

    The family’s using her traumatic experience to publicize the inhumane conditions at those 3 detention centres, and raise awareness for her cellmates. They talk about constant lighting (torture), being moved at 3am to a different state (fucking with your lawyer), being chained and overcrowded.

    “There’s 30 other people in her cell that have not even been spoken to by a detention caseworker. So there are people in there whose families don’t know where their kids are.” - Jasmine’s father, Stephen Mooney, speaking on March 13th.

    These conditions should be common knowledge, and this traumatized family is doing what they can on that front.

    You and I are not more safe than she is. Our neighbours are not more safe than she is. Her escape does not make her the enemy of her cellmates. We’re all Venezuelan gang members (or whoever it’s ok to fuck with) if they take our papers and deem us so.

    Non-entertainment news source here.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    6 hours ago

    When this is happening to even the beautiful white women, you know shit’s a thousand times worse for BIPOC… I know that we had issues with immigration during previous administrations, but they were nothing compared to this vile treatment.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    13
    ·
    7 hours ago

    These stories make me wish people hadn’t reelected Bush and Obama when both made it very clear they were supportive of fascist policies like torture, extraordinary rendition, drone bombings without accountability, permanent imprisonment, etc.

    None of this is new. It’s just louder now.

  • ms.lane@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    192
    ·
    15 hours ago

    Officials allegedly told her she was “unprofessional because I didn’t have a proper letterhead” on her paperwork.

    How dare her paperwork not wear a suit!

  • Ziggurat
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    85
    ·
    14 hours ago

    While the actress has some notoriety, huge part of the international trade relies on short term work visa. When Airbus builds a new factory in the US, or That a US factory chooses German industrial robots, you need to send people on short-term work visa to kickstart it.

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        15 hours ago

        At that point does it even matter? Like, if she were working another profession would they put it in the headline?

        • metaldream@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          34
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          13 hours ago

          You’re only hearing about her because she has media connections in the first place.

        • PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          43
          ·
          15 hours ago

          No, but I suspect the last line qualifies it’s inclusion, where her"status" and presence in the media field gave her an opportunity to amplify her story and provide the visibility it needed to get her freed.

          • rockhard@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            14
            ·
            8 hours ago

            Yes and it also raises visibility for the very real issues that people have raised concerns about. It’s one thing to detain and/or deport people without proper documentation. It’s another to act as though people with the proper documentation who are abiding the laws are also being detained and/or deported. Say nothing for the US citizens who are also being detained and/or deported.

        • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          20
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          13 hours ago

          I don’t want to minimise her suffering but I’m sure there are many other people in similar situations that we haven’t heard about.

          • AA5B@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            4 hours ago

            White, some level of fame, voluntarily coming in from the “right” side of the border, had some sort of paperwork, her work visa apparently hadn’t yet expired?