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An Irish woman who was detained by US immigration authorities because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years has been released after 17 days in custody.
Cliona Ward, 54, who has lived legally in the US for decades, emerged on Wednesday from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility at Tacomain Washington.
After visiting her sick father in Ireland she had been detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April, causing an outcry in Ireland and the US and a campaign for her release.
Last week a California judge agreed to an application for the original convictions to be formally overturned in a manner that would be recognised at a federal level, paving the way for her release, according to Ward’s lawyers.
The incarceration left Ward traumatised but she was thankful for the support and is now recuperating, her sister, Orla Holladay, wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Cliona is finally in her own bed and we are all ready for some quiet and reflection.”
Ward had requested food before returning home, Holladay wrote. “The first thing she did was jump on the bed and hug the pillows. She is in shock; filled with emotions, traumatized, full of gratitude, fear for the women she left behind.”
Erin Hall, a Washington-based attorney who represented Ward, said: “We are all extremely happy.”
Ward is originally from Dublin and moved as a child to the US where she obtained a green card, attended the University of California, in Santa Cruz, now works for a non-profit, pays taxes and cares for a chronically ill son who is a US citizen, according to Holladay.
A criminal record for drug possession and misdemeanours from 2007 and 2008 was expunged at state level but not federal, which put her in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s crackdown on documented as well as undocumented immigrants.
Earlier this year Ward accompanied her stepmother to Ireland to visit her father, who has dementia, and upon 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 partially expunged convictions and presented them to Ice officials at San Francisco airport on 21 April, after which she was again detained, said Holladay.
Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, and the US representative Jimmy Panetta, a Democrat from California, spoke out about the case.
Holladay thanked supporters. “You can consider it an absolute and beautiful success – each of you have literally helped to save Cliona’s life as she knows it and we love you for your humanity and kindness.”
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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 visa and green card holders and citizens who have the status by birth or naturalisation, or tourists.
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.
The number of overseas visitors to the US dropped by 11.6% in March compared with the previous year, including a 17.2% decline in people traveling from western Europe, according to US government data.
