James Brown has spoken out about the “egregious” detention of his wife Donna Hughes-Brown (58) by immigration officials in July at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago as she was arriving home from a funeral in Ireland.
Ms Hughes-Brown, a full-time healthcare worker, has been living in the US for 47 years after moving there as an 11-year-old with her family. She also holds Irish citizenship.
“My wife is not a criminal,” Mr Brown told a local Missouri TV news station.
“You don’t arrest 58-year-old grandmothers. It’s just wrong. She hasn’t committed crimes. You just don’t do that.”
She is now being held by ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) while her distraught husband Jim makes desperate appeals for help in securing her release
“This is wrong,” he told local Missouri new TV network KMOV.
He and Donna, an Irish citizen, were married eight years ago.
Jim and Donna Brown
Today’s News in 90 Seconds, Wednesday, September 10
She came to the US when she was just 11-years-old and became a legal resident alien, or green card carrier, but is not a US citizen.
However, Jim, a veteran, believes that the fact they are married should also protect her from being deported.
“It’s just not fair that you’re telling me I have to be a bachelor the rest of my life because of some stupid policy,” he added.
She remains behind bars at a county jail in Kentucky, as the US government is attempting to deport her.
“It’s egregious that we have allowed a government to allow this to happen,” he told KMOV.
According to the station, Donna wrote a bad cheque for $25 ten years ago.
‘Crime of moral turpitude’
She paid it back and got probation but Jim says the US government considers it a “crime of moral turpitude”, a term used in the immigration context that has no statutory definition.
Courts in the US consider that moral turpitude “refers generally to conduct that shocks the public conscience as being inherently base, vile or depraved, contrary to the rules of morality.”
“I think it’s nonsense. I think it’s a blanket thing to catch everybody, to fill beds,” Jim said.
A direct result, he says, of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies, “they signed a stupid bill that is torturing innocent people, and that’s the problem.
“She’s been in this country 47 years, is married, with five kids and five grandkids, and you’re telling me she’s a flight risk?” he said.
With appeals to US representatives having gone nowhere he said: “I somebody to have the guts and the fortitude to stand up and say, ‘you know what? This is wrong’,” Brown said.
“It’s crazy that this is happening. It’s just crazy that this is even allowed in this country. That’s the problem. It shouldn’t even be thought that this should be OK,” he said.
Brown, a veteran who served 20 years to fight for the United States, says he won’t stop fighting for his wife.
“My wife is not a criminal,” he said as he is left caring for their horses on their nine-acre farm near Troy, Missouri.
Donna Brown
A GoFundMe for Donna states it was created to help prepare and support Jim Brown’s “fight for justice and freedom of his wife, Donna Hughes-Brown, who was wrongly detained and incarcerated this past July”.
“The goal is to raise the resources necessary to cover the lawyers and court fees, and help Jim and Donna navigate these difficult, stressful , and expensive times,” the appeal reads.
“Jim and Donna are both very strong supporters and helpers of our community. They are often involved with multiple volunteer organizations and projects.
“They both are hardworking, honest, and caring individuals. They are good servers of God; humble people who are always willing to help, and kind friends that shares knowledge and wisdom with anyone in need.”
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed to the Irish Independent it is aware of the case and is providing consular assistance.
They added; “As with all consular cases, the Department does not comment on the details of individual cases.”
Cliona Ward
In May of this year, Cliona Ward was released from custody in the US where she had been arrested after she returned from visiting her dying father in Ireland in April.
The 54-year-old who is originally from Dublin, lives in Santa Cruz, California.
Ward was detained by ICE over minor convictions from almost 20 years ago, which were supposed to have been expunged from her record.
She was released and told to report to San Francisco with proof of her expungement; however, when she got there, she was re-apprehended, charged with moral turpitude and shipped to Washington.
The mother remained behind bars in a detention facility until she was released.
Taking to a GoFundMe page, set up by her sister Orla Holladay, Cliona thanked her family for support and talked about her ordeal for the first time.
“You know how to weave the strings together to provide due process for the people in ICE detention centres.
“That is all they need…. They are not informed on how to get out and they are so afraid to speak up for the basic human rights…like how to find council or interpreter services… They give them detention handbooks in English and Spanish only,” she continued.
“All done on purpose to keep them detained and deportable. I cannot thank you enough for what you did.
In March, a 35-year-old Irishman identified only as “Thomas” returned home to Ireland, having been detained by US immigration officials for about 100 days in total in three separate facilities.
Thomas had travelled to the US to visit his girlfriend in West Virginia late last year under the ESTA visa waiver programme which allows tourists to visit the US for a maximum of 90 days.
However, after seriously injuring his calf, he was advised to avoid flying for at least eight weeks due to a risk of blood clots.
After overstaying his travel by three days, Thomas, who had booked a flight home for the following week was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after suffering a mental health episode while in a hotel.
Now banned from travelling to the US for ten years, he said those visiting should take immigration rules “very seriously”.