A New Zealand woman held at a US immigration center with her six-year-old son after being detained while crossing the Canada-US border is being “treated like a criminal,” said her friend and advocate, reported the Guardian.Sarah Shaw, 33, a New Zealander who has lived in Washington state for just over three years, dropped her two older children at Vancouver Airport on July 24 for them to take a direct flight to New Zealand to visit their grandparents.When she tried to re-enter US, the immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) detained her and her youngest son in what her friend Victoria Besancon described as a “terrifying” ordeal.“Sarah thought she was being kidnapped,” Besancon said, as quoted by the Guardian. “They didn’t really explain anything to her at first; they just kind of quietly took her and her son and immediately put them in like an unmarked white van.”Her phone was then confiscated, and she was transported to the Dilley immigration processing center in South Texas.Shaw is currently applying for a green card under a provision for domestic violence survivors. According to the GoFundMe page organised by Besancon, Shaw had work authorisation but had not yet received travel permission under what’s known as a “combo card,” although her son had such permission.“It wasn’t until she tried to come back across the border that she realised only half of the combination card, because it’s only one physical card, had been fully approved,” Bescanson said.Meanwhile, all three of Shaw’s children have their I-360 visas approved, and Bescanson claimed that Sarah’s youngest son was therefore being held “illegally.”Minda Thorward, Shaw’s attorney, said that under the previous administrations, customs and border protection (CBP) would likely have quickly paroled her back into the country, but that approach has changed under Trump, reported NBC King 5 News.Shaw, who works for the Washington state department of children, youth, and families (DCYF), was preparing to start graduate school soon, as per the GoFundMe page.The fund, which raised over $33,000 by Monday morning, aims to cover legal fees and basic needs after Shaw depleted her savings on legal representation, reported Newsweek.“She gives therapy and counselling to some of our most at-risk youth … and to be treated like a criminal herself has just been absolutely devastating,” Bescanson said as quoted by the Guardian.Several legal US residents have been detained by ICE in the past months. While some detainees reportedly have criminal histories that might justify visa revocation, others argue that errors in paperwork led to their detention and believe they should be released.New Zealand’s foreign affairs ministry has confirmed that they are in contact with Shaw but provided no further details due to privacy concerns, reported The Guardian.
