A Canadian entrepreneur and actress — who appeared in the “American Pie” franchise — said she was shackled and detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the southern border while trying to obtain a new visa, according to reports.
Jasmine Mooney, 35, co-founder of Holy! Water, said she’s been held in “inhumane” conditions since she was nabbed at the San Ysidro border between Mexico and San Diego on March 3, KGTV reported.
“Every single guard that sees me is like ‘What are you doing here? I don’t understand – you’re Canadian. How are you here?’” she told the outlet from inside the San Luis Regional Detention Center in Arizona.
“I have never in my life seen anything so inhumane.”
Mooney traveled to the border crossing earlier this month after learning in November her three-year TN work visa had been revoked as she was trying to catch a flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles, where she runs her health-focused tonic drink brand, the outlet reported.
The former actress, who appeared in a racy scene in “American Pie Presents: The Book of Love” in 2009, decided to try her luck at San Ysidro – where she had obtained her first work visa on the advice of her lawyer – with a new job offer and her visa paperwork in hand.
Mooney entered the country through Mexico, where border agents initially advised her to visit a US consulate to apply for legal status to work in the country again. She was then refused entry back to Mexico and detained, she told the outlet.
She described being kept in a cold room for three days at the world’s busiest land border before she was arrested by ICE and thrown into San Diego’s Otay Mesa Detention Center.
“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 half days,” she told the outlet, decrying the food inside the facility.
Brian Todd, a spokesperson for the private company that owns the detention center, refuted Mooney’s claims about the food, claiming the facility provides “nutritious” meals daily to inmates, the outlet reported.
Mooney claimed that she, along with a group of 30 other women, were then rounded up in the middle of the night and shipped to Arizona.
“We were up for 24 hours wrapped in chains,” she added.
Mooney, who has not been charged with a crime, is expected to be released from custody on Friday following 11 days behind bars, her father, Stephen, told CBC Thursday night.
She will be transported to a detention center in Tijuana, Mexico and then flown back to Vancouver Friday night, the outlet reported.
“Jasmine’s a strong girl, but what she has gone through is … no one should do that,” the frustrated father told the outlet, adding that he’s feeling “a lot of relief” especially after knowing his daughter was “in shackles and handcuffs” the majority of the time she was detained.
“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 money other people that are in there.”
He believes political pressure helped secure his daughter’s release, adding that she appeared to have lost weight while in custody after being shown a photo.
“There were conversations at the highest level, and I would like to think that helped get her released earlier,” the father said.
Following his daughter’s ordeal, Stephen warned other Canadians with similar work visa situations against traveling to the US.
“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, Alexis Eagles, said she’s been worried for her daughter’s wellbeing since the day she was taken — echoing her husband’s frustration regarding a lack of communication from the feds.
“I haven’t been able to sleep thinking about what my daughter is being put through. We treat cattle better than this in Canada,” Eagles, told the Vancouver Sun.
“We have no issue with her being denied entry, we have no issue with her initially being detained. 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.”
Eagles slammed the federal government for wasting taxpayer money to imprison someone who is not a criminal and has no criminal record.
“She had a valid three-year TN visa, but when she went back to the States, she was told she was not welcome anymore,” the worried mother told the Canadian outlet, noting that no official reason was given for the visa’s reversal.
“She had all the paperwork and everything. It just doesn’t make sense.”
ICE officials told The Post Thursday that Mooney was detained in accordance with an executive order President Trump signed on his first day back in the White House that grants immigration officials the authority to lock up illegal immigrants.
“Jasmine Mooney was detained March 3 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for not having legal documentation to be in the United States,” the statement said.
“Mooney was processed in accordance with the ‘Securing Our Borders’ Executive Order dated January 21. All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removed from the U.S., regardless of nationality.”
British Columbia Premier David Eby issued concern for Mooney and blasted the US government for violating the “very idea” that Canadians are safe when they travel across the border.
“The nature of our relationships is so fraught right now that this case makes us all wonder, you know, what about our relatives who are working in the States?” Eby said, CBC reported.
“What about when we cross the border, what kind of experience are we going to have?”
