By Olivier Acuña Barba •
Revealed: 08 Could 2025 • 23:56
• 3 minutes learn
Cliona Ward, a inexperienced card holder, was detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April, earlier than being despatched to an immigration facility in Tacoma, Washington. | Picture: Gofundme
Clíona Ward, a 29-year-old from Co Meath, Eire, had visions of California’s golden coast, able to crash on her cousins’ sofa for a summer time jaunt. As a substitute, she bought a 17-day stint in a Minnesota detention centre, courtesy of US immigration officers who nabbed her at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport on March 15, 2025.
How about her legitimate ESTA visa and return ticket? Deemed nugatory within the face of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“The system principally ghosted me,” Ward instructed The Guardian after being freed and shipped again to Eire. “Nobody would inform me why I used to be being held. I had my ESTA (digital visa) authorised. However none of it mattered.”
Barred from calling her mom for days and denied a lawyer, Ward says she was handled like a smuggler caught red-handed. “They saved saying it was protocol,” she stated in a tone of utter disappointment, “however nobody ever defined what protocol I’d supposedly damaged.” After two weeks, officers pinned her with “intent to overstay,” a flimsy cost based mostly on offhand feedback throughout a grilling.
‘I used to be humiliated and terrified’
Ward landed in a cell with a lady who “had misplaced her thoughts,” watching the clock tick in a facility stretched to breaking.
“I used to be humiliated,” she stated. “I used to be terrified. I did every thing proper.”
Ward’s ordeal isn’t a one-off. Since Trump took workplace in January 2025, ICE has detained over 200,000 folks, with advocacy teams just like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimating 3,000-5,000 had been authorized visa holders or residents wrongly swept up, like Ward.
The US-based NGO additionally stated they foresee over 1.2 million folks legally within the nation being deported beneath Trump’s revival of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which, paradoxically, a Trump-appointed federal decide stated was “not validly invoked.”
Wrongful deportations are trickier to pin down—dozens are documented, together with Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran despatched to El Salvador by mistake, and a US citizen baby deported to Honduras.
Felt like a prison for visiting cousins within the US
“Cliona was made to really feel like a prison for visiting her cousins,” Ward’s mom raged. “How is that OK?”
The Trump administration’s immigration blitz has sparked world alarm, with plans to deport migrants to Libya’s “hellish” prisons—the place torture, rape, and slavery are rife, per a 2023 UN report.
On Could 7, 2025, US District Decide Brian Murphy slammed the brakes on these Libya flights, ruling they violated due course of.
“All 9 Supreme Court docket justices, Congress, and primary decency” again him, he wrote, citing Libya’s “life-threatening” circumstances. But, the administration is eyeing different third nations like Angola and Moldova to dump deportees.
Not too long ago, British graphic artist Rebecca Burke went by means of the same ordeal, which prompted her to warning folks in opposition to travelling to the USA.
Is 3 times a attraction? Not for Trump
The Supreme Court docket has tried 3 times in 2025 to curb Trump’s deportation spree. In April, it paused Venezuelan deportations beneath the Alien Enemies Act, demanding due course of.
Later that month, it blocked extra removals from Texas’s Bluebonnet Detention Centre. In March, it tackled wrongful deportations like García’s, although Trump’s crew usually sidestepped orders, claiming “administrative errors” or Pentagon-led flights not lined by injunctions. Regardless of these rulings, deportations churn on—37,660 in February alone, per ICE, with 238 Venezuelans despatched to El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison by April. Courts cry foul, however ICE retains raiding, even focusing on colleges and hospitals.
Ward’s saga, like these of numerous EU nationals caught within the internet, exposes a system the place paperwork doesn’t assure security. Irish consular officers, alerted late to her detention, may solely shrug.
For expats dreaming of US adventures, Ward’s warning stings: a sound visa won’t prevent from a cell. Pack your baggage, however perhaps maintain off on that American street journey. She’s alone. Not too long ago, British graphic artist Rebecca Burke went by means of the same ordeal, which prompted her to warning folks in opposition to travelling to the USA.
The Trump deportation measure has brought about an 11.6 per cent drop in abroad guests to the US, together with a 17.2 per cent drop in folks travelling from Western Europe, based on US authorities information.