An Irish woman who has lived legally in the US for four decades has been detained by immigration officials for the last week because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years.
Cliona Ward, 54, was detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April after returning from Ireland to visit her sick father and is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Tacoma, Washington.
Ward holds a green card but has convictions for drug possession from 2007 and 2008, which she believed had been expunged, her family said.
The latest evidence of a crackdown on documented migrants under President Donald Trump prompted an expression of concern from the Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin. “Where people have green cards and citizenship rights there shouldn’t be an issue so we will be pursuing this on a bilateral basis to make sure that those who are legitimately entitled to be in the US are free from any challenges or difficulties of this kind,” he told RTÉ on Monday. Ireland’s department of foreign affairs said it was providing consular assistance.
Originally from Dublin, Ward moved to the US when she was a child, attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, works for a non-profit, pays taxes and cares for a chronically ill son who is a US citizen, according to her sister Orla Holladay.
Ward’s criminal record includes two felonies for drug possession and four misdemeanours, according to court documents reviewed by Newsweek. The cases stem from a period when she was an addict but she has been sober for two decades, Holladay told the magazine. “She has a criminal past, but she’s not a criminal. She’s a person with a painful past.”
In a crowdfunding appeal to raise funds for a lawyer – by Monday afternoon pledges exceeded $23,000 (£17,200) – Holladay said her sister had paid for her offences and become a valued member of the community. “She did everything she was supposed to do in order to make reparations,” she wrote. “Cliona is a very private and gentle person, who wants nothing more than to return to her quiet life.”
In the belief that her convictions were expunged – the Guardian could not verify this was the case – Ward had frequently visited Ireland and returned to the US each time without problems, said Holladay.
Earlier this year she accompanied her stepmother to Ireland to visit her father, who has dementia, and after returning to the US was stopped at Seattle airport on 19 March and held for three days.
She was released to obtain documentation about the allegedly expunged convictions and presented them to Ice officials at San Francisco airport on 21 April, after which she was again detained and sent to the facility at Tacoma, said Holladay.
Ward was shackled en route, leaving her feeling shamed and demoralised, and found conditions at the facility to be harsh, her sister said. “Although she can’t speak with the majority of the women in there because most don’t speak English, they have been giving each other support and there are lots of tears and hugs between the women.”
Erin Hall, a Seattle-based lawyer, is due to have an initial consultation with Ward on Monday. Ward’s immigration hearing is scheduled for 7 May.
The US Representative Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California, said it was “unfathomable” that a reportedly expunged, decades-old crime could be used to deport a legal permanent resident who was a productive member of the community.
Trump won the 2024 election on the promise of “the largest deportation operation in American history” but few anticipated a crackdown on documented immigrants, including green card holders and citizens who have the status by birth or naturalisation. On 27 April a federal judge accused the administration of removing a two-year-old US citizen “with no meaningful process”.
Recent high-profile cases include a Canadian, Jasmine Mooney, who was detained for two weeks, sometimes in freezing cells, because of an issue with her work visa.
Jessica Brösche, a German tourist, spent more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement, reportedly because US authorities suspected she planned to work as a tattoo artist without a work visa.
A visa mix-up led to Rebecca Burke, a British graphic artist, being interrogated and detained for three weeks, an ordeal that prompted her to caution other tourists to avoid travelling to the US.
