A Canadian actress known for her role in the first “American Pie” movie broke down in tears as she described the harrowing experience of being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for entering the country illegally.
Jasmine Mooney, 35, spoke through sobs during a video call from the San Luis Regional Detention Center in Arizona, where she is being held pending deportation to Canada.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Mooney told ABC10. “I feel like we have been kidnapped, and we are in some sort of insane social, psychological, social experiment.”
Visibly emotional, she added, “I really want to be a voice for the women in here, because what is happening is so unjust and I know that there’s a better way to do this.”
Mooney, an entrepreneur in the health beverage industry and owner of Holy! Water, was taken into custody on March 3 at the San Ysidro border crossing between Mexico and California after attempting to re-enter the United States without proper documentation.
She claims her work visa was revoked in November 2024 when she was traveling from Vancouver to Los Angeles, where she both resides and operates her business.
“Every single guard that sees me is like ‘What are you doing here? I don’t understand — you’re Canadian. How are you here?’” Mooney told KGTV. “I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane.”
According to Mooney, her visa was nullified by a customs officer at Vancouver Airport due to an alleged paperwork discrepancy, though she did not specify the exact reason.
Acting on advice from her attorney, she flew to Mexico and attempted to enter the U.S. via the border with proof of new employment, hoping to secure the necessary paperwork for a work visa.
Initially, border agents instructed her to visit a U.S. Consulate to apply for legal status.
However, when she was denied re-entry to Mexico, she was classified as an illegal alien and placed into ICE custody.
Jasmine Mooney, co-founder of Holy Water, uncovers the myth behind most health beverages and shares what makes her brand stand out.
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“I was put in a cell, and I had to sleep on a mat with no blanket, no pillow, with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days,” she recounted.
Mooney further detailed how she and approximately 30 other women were abruptly moved in the middle of the night and transported to Arizona.
“We were up for 24 hours wrapped in chains,” she said.
She described feeling physically drained and mentally strained from her time in detention, saying she has resorted to meditation to cope.
“It’s been 11 days now, and I have no idea what is going on. They don’t tell you anything, and I have lost so much weight. I’m truly, physically, weak.”
ICE confirmed that Mooney was detained for lacking legal authorization to be in the U.S.
Despite spending over a week in custody, she has not yet been granted a hearing before an immigration judge.
Her family, desperate to secure her release, has enlisted legal help and is urging the Canadian government to intervene.
“I haven’t been able to sleep thinking about what my daughter is being put through. We treat cattle better than this in Canada,” said her father, Stephen Mooney, in an interview with The Vancouver Sun.
“We have no issue with her being denied entry. We have no issue with her initially being detained,” he added.
“But we have a huge issue with the inhumane treatment she is receiving and that she knows nothing, has not been charged, and has not been able to speak with us directly.”
Mooney, who has not been charged with any crime, is expected to be released from custody on Friday according to her father.
He told CBC that she will be transferred to a detention facility in Tijuana, Mexico, before being flown back to Vancouver.
“Jasmine’s a strong girl, but what she has gone through is … no one should do that,” her father said, expressing relief that her ordeal is nearing an end.
He described his frustration at learning she had been kept in shackles and handcuffs for much of her detention.
“Just the lack of due process and the lack of communication that we’ve had through that detention center, I feel for, of course, not only Jasmine, but the many other people that are in there.”
He credited political pressure with expediting his daughter’s release and noted she appeared visibly thinner in recent photographs.
“There were conversations at the highest level, and I would like to think that helped get her released earlier,” he added.
Following his daughter’s experience, Stephen Mooney cautioned other Canadians in similar visa situations against traveling to the U.S.
“That process down there is terrible, and I believe it’s worse because of the new administration, because of Trump … I would be cautious for anyone to go into the States,” he told CBC.
Mooney’s mother criticized the U.S. government for detaining a law-abiding person with no criminal record, arguing it was a waste of taxpayer dollars.
“She had a valid three-year TN visa, but when she went back to the States, she was told she was not welcome anymore,” she told the “Vancouver Sun,” adding that no official explanation was given for the visa’s cancellation.
“She had all the paperwork and everything. It just doesn’t make sense.”