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Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney, who gained fame from American Pie Presents: The Book of Love, went through a harrowing experience at the beginning of this month.
What started as a routine visa application turned into a 12-day ordeal, where she endured harsh prison conditions.
The actress learned in November that her TN work visa had expired while she was performing in Los Angeles at the age of 35.
Upon hearing about the visa cancellation, she sought professional advice and was directed to visit a U.S. border checkpoint to apply for a new visa.
On March 3, she went to the San Ysidro border between Mexico and San Diego, armed with essential documentation and a new job offer.
What followed was a sequence of events that Mooney said she “never in a million years” could have expected.
After immigration officials denied her entry, Mooney was detained by ICE instead of being allowed to return home.
During her detention, the actress was moved from one facility to another in a confusing series of events that caused her significant distress.
She described the environment as extremely harsh, explaining that she had no bed linen or pillow and had to sleep on an aluminum-wrapped foam mattress.
At the facility, detainees were kept under continuous light, and Mooney was handcuffed and shackled multiple times by officers.
The staff at the detention center seemed to lack understanding of her situation, as she was a Canadian citizen, with some officers expressing confusion about why a foreign national was being treated this way.
The entire ordeal lasted 12 days before Mooney finally learned the reason behind her detention.
The parents of Ashley Birdsill-Mooney, Stephen Mooney and Alexis Eagles, expressed concern about the mental distress she endured, highlighting the poor communication from authorities throughout the experience.
During her time in detention, Stephen Mooney observed how personnel kept his daughter in handcuffs and moved her between various detention sites without providing any explanation.
Alexis Eagles spoke to the media, describing how her daughter endured harsh conditions, including frigid temperatures and constant illumination, which made it impossible for her to rest.
Mooney acknowledged her own mental struggles but later learned that the experiences of other detainees were even more difficult, with many revealing that her situation was relatively easier.
“Every single person in there is in a way worse situation than me,” she admitted, recognizing the severe hardships others faced in detention.
Mooney chose not to assign blame for her time in detention, instead focusing on the broader issues she witnessed.
Mooney stated that she refused to blame any specific factor for her situation, saying, “I really don’t know. People can make their guesses about what happened, but no one can verify these speculations.”
Her ICE detention ended abruptly when they released her, allowing her to return to her home in Vancouver.
She arrived home at midnight on March 15, still trying to make sense of the events that transpired.
Mooney continues to process everything she went through, remaining honest with herself. “Due to not sleeping for so long and not eating nutritious food, I find myself merely existing without any genuine purpose,” she admitted.
Mooney now serves as a cautionary tale to Canadian citizens, sharing important advice about border visas and the potential outcomes immigrants may face if caught in detention.
Mooney survived her imprisonment, but many other detainees remain incarcerated under similar or even worse conditions, with their struggles largely going unnoticed.
Currently, Mooney is focused on revitalizing her life while using her experience to shed light on the flaws within the system
Feature Image Credit: (Instagram/jasminemooney) (EPA) (Jasmine Mooney/Linkedin) and (CTV News) and (Youtube/ABC 10 News)
