On a day when President Trump is expected to tout his immigration record during his first hundred days in office news is breaking of an Irish woman who has been legally resident in the country for 30 years being detained by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, ICE, in California.
As first reported in a San Francisco NBC affiliate, and later in the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the San Jose Mercury News, Cliona Ward, 54, was detained by ICE after returning from Ireland where she had visited her ill father.
According to the reports, Ward was "apprehended" by federal authorities at San Francisco International Airport after her trip, despite holding a valid permanent green card.
Ward was removed to a detention facility in Tacoma, Washington where she will face a hearing. The hearing, according to a family member, is related to 20-year-old drug possession charges.
A representative from California State Assemblymember Gail Pellerin’s office told the Sentinel they were contacted Tuesday by a constituent and friend of Ward’s who was seeking guidance.
The friend explained that Ward recently traveled to Ireland, where she holds citizenship, to visit her father who is gravely ill. On her flight home in late March, she was stopped in Seattle and temporarily held by Customs and Border Protection.
According to the Sentinel report, Ward’s sister, Orla Holladay, told the Sentinel this first detention lasted from March 19-21.
"However, Ward was eventually released and asked to report to the San Francisco Airport for a hearing in April. But after arriving at that hearing with the necessary documents, she was charged with moral turpitude and detained once again.
"Holladay told the Sentinel she spoke with her sister Thursday (April 27) and she told her she was in the process of being transported back to Seattle to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.
“She’s terrified, she’s distraught, she’s scared, she’s worried about her son,” said Holladay. “She’s just trying to hold it together.”
According to Holladay, the basis that federal authorities shared for Ward’s detainment stemmed from a 20-year-old drug possession conviction, which she said had been expunged.
According to NBC Bay Area, which first reported the story, Ward’s criminal record includes six cases of misdemeanors and felonies involving drug possession and theft ranging from 2003 to 2008.
According to reports, the Santa Cruz County Superior Court’s case archive shows that Ward was charged with a civil traffic infraction in 2003, which she later pled guilty to in 2010. Another case in early 2010 brought by the county Department of Child Support Services against Ward was dismissed only a couple months later.
Holladay said that because these cases were expunged within the state of California and not by federal authorities, Ward is now told she must be seen by a federal judge. Her first court hearing has been set for May 7.
Holladay described her sister as a gentle, loving and private person. She said she has struggled with addiction, but has been sober for more than 20 years and has worked hard to leave behind a painful past where poor choices were made.
“This has to do with a painful addiction and she did everything she could do to change that,” said Holladay. “She’s a viable, valuable part of this community.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to questions before the Sentinel’s print deadline, the paper reported.
Holladay explained that she and her sister were both born in Ireland but Ward moved to the U.S. when she was 12 years old. At 18, Ward relocated to the Central Coast to attend UC Santa Cruz where she studied comparative world religions, though she never finished the degree. Being that the two sisters were extremely close, Holladay, who received her U.S. citizenship last year, eventually followed Ward to Santa Cruz and has worked as an educator for more than 20 years.
Ward, according to reports, now works at a local nonprofit Christian organization teaching soil management and conservation to children. While at home, she cares for her chronically ill adult son as a state-hired in-home supportive services caretaker. In Ward’s absence, Holladay now helps manage Hager’s care alongside his grandparents, now in their 80s. Hager’s birthday was Wednesday.
“I do think this is a clear example … of the falsehood we’re hearing from the (federal) administration that they’re only going after, you know, hardened criminals who are here undocumented,” said Assemblymember Pellerin.
“Here they’re clearly going after somebody who has been in this country, who has a green card, who 20 years ago had some offenses that were minor and she thought they were expunged from the record. But the fact that she is a person being held under this circumstance is just absolutely appalling.”
Pellerin’s office collaborated with U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, also contacted early by Ward’s acquaintance, to connect Ward and her family with legal resources.
“Although we continue to gather the facts of this case, it’s been reported that Cliona Ward is being detained for a 20-year old drug possession crime that was expunged from her record. Based on that information alone, it is unimaginable that a reportedly expunged, decades-old crime could be used as justification for deporting a legal permanent resident who is a productive member of our community,” Panetta told the Sentinel in a statement.
“But this is the cruel and misguided nature of this Administration’s deportation policy. As a former gang prosecutor, I understand and appreciate the need to remove hardened criminals from our communities, but the detention of Ms. Ward, now in her 50s and a Green Card holder, for reportedly decades-old crimes that have been expunged from her personal record is unfathomable and unacceptable.
"I am continuing to push the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for the release of Ms. Ward and am working closely with her legal advocates to coordinate efforts, ensure transparency, and uphold the law and due process that must be afforded to everyone in the United States.”
Assemblymember Pellerin said she brought Ward’s case to the attention of the California attorney general, the Irish Consulate in San Francisco, Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and other state officials to try to get it additional attention and resources.
Vice Consul General of Ireland Jennifer Chadwick told the Sentinel via email that, “The Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance. As with all consular cases, the Department does not comment on the details of individual cases.”
Justin Cummings, the 3rd District Santa Cruz County supervisor representing the city of Santa Cruz, has also been tracking the story since news first broke.
“I am horrified by the fact that one of our residents is being wrongfully detained for something that she did in her past,” Cummings said in a statement.
“If people violate the law and go through the process to be accountable for their actions, they should be given a second chance. These actions are inhumane and unconstitutional.”
Holladay said she and her family have now turned their attention to Seattle, where they hope to find an effective lawyer dealing with immigration cases. Meanwhile, Ward told her sister that her time in detention has been chaotic.
“She’s afraid that she’s going to get lost in the system,” said Holladay.
“That was the one thing she said to me: ‘Please don’t let me get lost.’”
Ward's detention has now made headlines in news outlets in Ireland.
