Family and friends are expressing fears for a Penticton, B.C., woman and her daughter who have been detained by U.S. authorities in Texas and are currently in an immigration holding facility.
Tania Warner — a 47-year-old who family say is legally in the U.S. on a worker’s visa — and daughter Ayla Lucas were stopped at a U.S. border checkpoint on their way back from a baby shower.
Seven-year-old Lucas has autism, leading to fears from loved ones that border detention could be disturbing for the child.
Husband Edward Warner lives with Tania and Lucas in Kingsville, Texas. The two were on their way back from a baby shower in Raymondville on Saturday, and had to stop at a mandatory border checkpoint in Sarita, Texas.
It was something they had done before without any issues at the checkpoint, which is located inside the U.S. and not at an international border.
But this time, Edward says, the mother and child were detained. They are among dozens of Canadians who have been detained by U.S. immigration authorities, whose tactics as part of an ongoing immigration crackdown across the U.S. have faced criticism over alleged human rights abuses.
“A little freaked out. It’s definitely traumatizing for a seven-year-old,” Edward Warner told CBC News on Tuesday about his stepdaughter. “Very not happy being there, I wouldn’t be either.
“My wife’s having anxiety attacks and all sorts of problems,” he added.
CBC News reached out to U.S. federal authorities for this story, but did not immediately hear back before publication.
A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada said that it was aware of “multiple cases of Canadians currently or previously in immigration-related detention in the U.S.” and consular officials would provide assistance as required by international law.
“Consular officials advocate for Canadian citizens abroad and raise concerns about justified and serious complaints of ill-treatment or discrimination with the local authorities but cannot exempt Canadians from local legal processes,” the spokesperson wrote.
“Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”
Tania has been in the U.S. for around five years, according to family friend Mario Muñoz, whose wife’s baby shower the family was attending before the detainment.
Tania was initially in the U.S. on a visitor visa before she married Edward and obtained a worker’s visa, according to Muñoz.
“I know she’s got legal working status … so we were completely caught off guard by them taking her in,” he told CBC News on Thursday.
Muñoz said that, earlier Saturday, Ayla was playing with his niece and granddaughter and there was talk of setting up play dates for the children.
“To go from having a great day to being literally in jail, like locked up, detained — for a seven-year-old, any seven-year-old, that’s insane,” he said.
Muñoz said that U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the region had been “raiding” work camps and neighbourhoods and detaining people “left and right,” but this was the first person he was connected to directly that was being detained.
The agency, which U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has said is targeting violent criminals as part of a deportation push, has faced criticism on multiple fronts.
How Trump turned ICE into a mass deportation machine
That includes non-profits expressing concerns over conditions at detention facilities to ICE’s arresting tactics themselves.
The criticism was only heightened during a recent immigration crackdown in Minnesota, in which federal agents fatally shot two American citizens, leading to widespread protests over ICE actions.
Muñoz and Edward Warner both said that they reached out to their local congressperson in Texas for help — but Tania needs to provide her signature for assistance to be rendered, which is difficult when she’s in detention.
“To do this to a child is just ridiculous, and to be as unhelpful as they are … the system is just designed to be cruel to people right now, and they don’t want to do anything to make it better,” Muñoz said.
