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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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[-] ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml 19 points 18 hours ago

US is a hostile nation.

[-] barneypiccolo@lemm.ee 31 points 21 hours 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 9 points 19 hours ago

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

[-] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 52 points 1 day 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 15 points 1 day ago

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

[-] hopesdead@startrek.website 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

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

[-] AshMan85@lemmy.world 99 points 1 day ago

Catholics are not considered white to the white supremacist

[-] MehBlah@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day 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 10 points 1 day 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 5 points 23 hours ago
[-] khannie@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours 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).

[-] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day 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 2 points 19 hours 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.

[-] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 48 points 1 day ago

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

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 15 points 22 hours ago

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

[-] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 69 points 1 day ago

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

[-] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 24 points 1 day ago

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

[-] qaz@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago

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

[-] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago

These were all minors of deported parents no? At least there's a bad reason for it.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 15 hours ago

I don’t remember reading that rule in the constitution…

[-] BenjiRenji@feddit.org 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

There should be a rule that you can't deport the legal guardian of a US citizen for that matter. All I'm saying is that they have an excuse for deporting them, even if it's a bad one. I don't understand the excuse for this case. Is there any?

[-] ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 7 points 23 hours ago

Tbf this was also a bad reason to detain this woman. They'll expand it to native-born American criminals, and then """criminals."""

[-] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 2 points 19 hours ago

Yes, that's the whole idea

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[-] Xanza@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day 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 22 hours 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 6 points 19 hours 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.

[-] swelter_spark@reddthat.com 2 points 14 hours ago

In my experience, regular police or sheriffs' deputies can still see details of "expunged" court cases in their system.

[-] loutr@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago

They have quotas to fill. Makes sense for them to pick these low-hanging fruits.

[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 day 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 6 points 23 hours 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 21 hours ago

The 800 miles of separation North-South.

[-] ericatty@infosec.pub 10 points 23 hours 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)

[-] FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Um, Seattle and SF are on the same coast..maybe there’s just a bigger concentration camp set up there

[-] snekerpimp@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago

“I bet she has tattoos!”

[-] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 37 points 1 day 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 19 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day 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 9 points 1 day ago

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

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[-] Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org 41 points 1 day ago

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

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 81 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I guess the Irish and Italians aren't white any more. We're getting closer to pinning down the time period where America was 'great'.

[-] kittenzrulz123 27 points 1 day ago

As a Jewish person, I think I can see where this is going

[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

it always ends up being jews in the end. first they came for the intellectuals, but the intellectuals already fled the country, then its race, poc, than the LGBTQ+ and then the jews, after that its non-loyalist supporters of the regime. at the same time getting rid of the opposition parties.

[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 day ago

Despite the rise of anti-semitism, I actually think you guys might survive this one. I'm worried about the Italians, who only recently got their white status tentatively approved

[-] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 2 points 18 hours ago

Nah, I'd bet a sly Italian person slipping something about "the mob/mafia" in conversation with the maga morons would have maga rethinking antagonizing Italians.

Plus, my wife has literal family ties to the mob (she's part Sicilian)

[-] kittenzrulz123 12 points 1 day ago

Looking at the neo nazi groups rising in popularity makes me think otherwise

[-] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

Going? We've already arrived.

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[-] Ledericas@lemm.ee 2 points 19 hours ago

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

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[-] Ton@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It would be hilarious to see this regime shooting itself in both feet before shooting itself in the head, if this weren't some route to a full-blown 'eMerGENcy' which they can then use to deactivate democracy all together.

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this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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