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An Irish woman who has lived legally in the US for four decades has been detained by immigration officials for the last week because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years.

Cliona Ward, 54, was detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April after returning from Ireland to visit her sick father and is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Tacoma, Washington.

Ward holds a green card but has convictions for drug possession from 2007 and 2008, which she believed had been expunged, her family said.

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[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 30 points 1 month ago

I have a close friend from Venezuela, who was a warded citizenship on December, so she thinks she's safe. I'm keeping quiet, because I don't want to scare her, but Venezuelans, who used to enjoy a special immigration privileges in America because their country was being led by a rogue dictator, has become one of the most demonized groups in America.

The MAGA Nazis don't respect anything, and having a green card or even citizenship isn't going to save anyone. They want to deport people who were actually BORN here, they definitely want to kick out every person that was born elsewhere.

[-] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 month ago

My friend, also naturalized and from Venezuela, knows he's not safe. We've talked. It sucks.

[-] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 month ago

US is a hostile nation.

[-] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago

Just wait until they figure out where Kash Patel is "really" from. Bet you the crocodile tears will run like rivers.

[-] Burninator05@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

No, it's ok. He's one of the good ones. /s

[-] hopesdead@startrek.website 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I’m sure they looked at Indian government and figured since they routinely discriminate the Muslim population he was in the clear.

[-] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 12 points 1 month ago

Wait.. why would they detain her let alone deport? She has legal residency.

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 month ago

Well it’s simple really—because the fascists decree it to be so.

[-] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 8 points 1 month ago

This makes residency permits completely worthless. Greencard holders other visa holders can all just be randomly detained when traveling.

[-] qaz@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

US Citizens have been getting deported, we're far past that already.

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[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago

They've also "deported" (exiled is a better word) actual citizens. Someone on a green card has less protection than that.

[-] Xanza@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

If she believed the drug charges were expunged and they were not, then she likely filled out the wrong immigration form and was granted residency because she "lied" on a government immigration document.

With a drug charge she very likely would not have been approved for residency. But this also means it's an oversight by USCIS, because the applicants criminal history should have been reviewed at the time of her application.

Something isn't adding up here.

[-] 10001110101@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

There was a story a couple weeks ago about another person getting deported on expunged charges. I'm guessing some agencies still keep records after expungement (I've heard they still show up when getting security clearance), and they're using that data.

[-] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 5 points 1 month ago

My bet is on it was expunged and this is them just using arrest records to justify bullshit. Now they will call her a CRIMINAL and anything they do is fine, as she is a dirty criminal.

The really really scary part is that they can arrest someone now on trumped up charges (like a judge that rules kidnapping is bad) then later "deport" them do to past arrests.

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[-] AshMan85@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

Catholics are not considered white to the white supremacist

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago

The Irish were not considered white until around 1930 or so. When the demographic shifts in the US required we be white in order to stave off the dreaded brown folk. The old bigot who lived next door to me growing up called me a tater tot until her dying day. I remember my grandfather talking about how one day he had bankers basically offering him a loan. Up until that point he was treated like shit at the bank.

Just go to http://www.rsdb.org/search?q=Irish

[-] khannie@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

The old bigot who lived next door to me growing up called me a tater tot

Prick. I heard two young American girls refer to the Irish as potatoes, in Dublin. They thought nobody could hear them then were properly embarrassed when they saw me.

[-] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago
[-] khannie@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

An I remember that one. It's good. I'll see your solid paddywhackery and raise you this (which I honestly pissed myself laughing at the first time I saw it).

[-] CalipherJones@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

The English were directly responsible for killing a million Irish people. They get hate for it, but not enough.

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[-] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Considering the US is going back to the 1800s, no better time to start treating the Irish like shit again.

[-] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

MAGA will decide they want to deport Irish-Americans. Ireland will respond by saying they don't let people claim residency that many generations back. MAGA will piss and moan. Eventually they will make a deal with the UK government. The UK government will build a large prison camp in Northern Ireland, right near the border with the Republic of Ireland. Irish Americans will be banished to the camp, in direct line of site from ROI land, until such time as ROI willingly accepts them in as refugees.

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[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago

C'mon let this establish precedent so I can get 'deported' to the home country after 150 years.

Also, why did she get sent across the country from San Fran to the SeaTac area? Is Washington acting like the Louisiana of the West Coast, what the fuck?

[-] LordGimp@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

Where exactly are you coming up with the idea that San Francisco California and Tacoma Washington are "across the country" from one another?

[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago

The 800 miles of separation North-South.

[-] ericatty@infosec.pub 8 points 1 month ago

We are a big country and Florida Keys to Maine is about 1800 miles, Wilmington NC to Barstow CA is about 2500 miles

Seems like up and down should count too sometimes. But we need a better word than across, especially if it can't be safely driven in a single day by a single driver without stopping to sleep.

(San Fran to SeaTac is about 800 miles)

[-] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

“I bet she has tattoos!”

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

I'd be willing to bet the universal common denominator for anyone who isn't brown is simply that they're antifascist.

[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Gotta say "antifa" (ann-TEE-fuh) so it sounds like a bad thing. Like an exotic gang, like al Qaeda or something. That way, normal people think antifa is the enemy, and in doing so, they support fascism without even knowing it.

Naming and pronunciation are key. They got half of America terrified of a fucking train halfway across the world.

[-] Senal@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

Same reasoning behind using DEI instead of the actual words that acronym represents.

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[-] Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago

But she's white!? (Sort of /s)

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago

she is a woman, aka dei, so thats a no-no for incel magats.

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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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