The Canadian government is doing everything it can to help a B.C. mother and her seven-year-old daughter who were locked up after being stopped at a U.S. immigration checkpoint in Texas, says a provincial MLA.
Amelia Boultbee, MLA for Penticton-Summerland, is working with the federal government to secure the release of Tania Warner, and her daughter Ayla, who is on the autism spectrum.
“We are looking at any kind of diplomatic or legal approach we can take to assist them.,” Boultbee said. “It’s horrible what’s going on with ICE in America, the lack of due process, treating folks like criminals is objectionable, and we particularly take exception when they are doing it to Canadians.”
She called the detention “extrajudicial,” and the conditions “inhumane.”
“Not only has she committed no crime, but her paperwork appears to be in order as well.”
Warner and her daughter were first taken to an ICE detention facility after being pulled over by officers in Sarita, Texas, on March 14, while on the way home from a baby shower with her American husband, Edward Warner.
After being ordered out of her vehicle and separated from her husband, she and her daughter were jailed at the Ursula Central Processing Center, a large migrant detention facility in McAllen, Texas.
They slept on the floor in a cold cellblock with other detainees for five days, before being transferred to the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas.
In a statement outlining the conditions at the facilities, sent to Postmedia by Warner on Tuesday, Tania said the guards at the Ursula Centre were, “sadistic, inhumane and abusive.”
Tania said she was told by authorities she was going to be deported, so she could “do it the easy way or the hard way,” and choose to self-deport.
She said she was taunted for being a Canadian.
“Is this the Canadian?” guards would say, she said. “I can’t believe we got a Canadian.”
“They thought it was a novelty to detain and mentally torture myself and my daughter,” said Tania. Her daughter was so stressed at Ursula, she broke out in a rash from her ankles to her buttocks.
Edward Warner told Postmedia he and his lawyers are in the process of applying for an ICE bond, similar to bail, which would allow the mother and daughter to be released while awaiting an immigration hearing.
Warner, a tattoo artist, lives in Kingsville Texas, which is about a 2½ hour drive from the Dilley Centre. He makes the drive to see them as often as he can. At the centre in Dilley, his wife and daughter are in a cell with bunk beds, a marginal improvement to sleeping on the floor.
“Something that’s a little better than hell is still pretty bad,” said Warner.
In a visit on Monday, they met face to face at a table in a visitor’s meeting room while Ayla doodled in a colouring book.
Tania broke down while describing how they are being treated, said Warner. “Everybody has something different to say to her, and everything seems underhanded, like they are trying to mislead her.”
Warner said that all of Tania and Ayla’s paperwork in order, including a formal determination, which shows the applicant has a temporary right to protection from deportation while their immigration application makes its way through the finalization process.
“We always went through all the proper channels and had all the proper paperwork,” said Warner.
If a judge grants an immigration bond, which would allow Tania and Ayla to be released pending a deportation hearing, but that may not be the end of the ordeal.
“I could pay it and they could get out, but they could still show up at the court date and the court could decide they don’t want them here and reincarcerate them,” said Warner.
The bond paperwork includes a report from Ayla’s school psychologist confirming her autism diagnosis.
Warner said his wife is trying to “hold it together for Ayla’s sake,” and he has been able to send her some commissary money so she can get shampoo and vitamins, but the ordeal has been horrifying.
In her statement, Tania said she has been randomly crying, afraid for her life, and devastated by seeing other mothers and kids being subjected to “abuse and torture.”
“I have experienced hell, was traumatized and will never be the same again. My daughter’s core memories will be going to prison,” she said.
Boultbee said she will continue to work with other politicians and the federal government to secure the release of Tania and her daughter. “They need to release our citizens,” she said.
