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<\/p>\nCurtis Wright used to start his mornings by waking up his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter and the first words he\u2019d often hear were \u201cDada.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the past four months, that has been replaced by phone calls from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Texas since the Edmonton-born man has been separated from the life he\u2019s built in the United States for the past three decades.<\/p>\n
Since his incarceration on Nov. 6, 2025, he\u2019s missed his daughter\u2019s first steps and missed precious time with his two older sons.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenge, not just for myself, but everyone involved. For my family, it\u2019s been one of the most difficult moments of my life,\u201d said Wright in an interview with Postmedia earlier this month from the South Texas ICE Processing Center in Pearsall, Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most difficult part of this all is without a doubt being separated from my family. Being away from my fiancee and my children, and missing out on the milestones with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m missing so many milestones. Hearing these things, they warm your heart, but they break it at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old is a permanent resident of the United States and has held a green card for 25 years after having renewed it three different times with no issues.<\/p>\n
Wright works in the oil and gas industry and was coming back from a work trip from Mexico in November when he was pulled aside for a second screening and then was detained by ICE.<\/p>\n
\u2018Devastating for our family\u2019<\/p>\n
ICE\u2019s reasons for detaining him stem from drug-possession charges when he was 17. He was caught with Xanax, commonly used to treat anxiety and panic disorders.<\/p>\n
Wright has three misdemeanors on his criminal record \u2014 the drug possession, a gun possession and impaired driving charge. His drug possession charges were adjudicated and he was found not guilty of the gun possession charge and can\u2019t face deportation from the impaired driving charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is devastating for our family,\u201d said Wright\u2019s fiancee, Kayla Thomsen, in an interview with Postmedia from their home in Spring, Texas, 40 km north of Houston.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur daughter carries around pictures of him around the house, and she cuddles them in the morning and when she goes to bed.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time the phone rings, she\u2019s constantly saying Dada. That\u2019s the only way she hears his voice now is through the phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A photo of Edmonton-born Curtis James Wright provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Wright remains in ICE custody pending the outcome of his immigration case.<\/p>\n
\u2018A green card is a privilege, not a right\u2019: ICE<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Postmedia contacted a public affairs officer with U.S. Immigration, and was told\u00a0 Wright was denied entry because of his previous criminal history. United States Customs and Border Protection arrested him and turned him over to ICE, where he remains in custody pending the outcome of his immigration case.<\/p>\n
\u201cA green card is a privilege, not a right. Under our nation\u2019s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused. In addition to immigration removal proceedings, lawful permanent residents presenting at a U.S. port of entry with previous criminal convictions may be subject to mandatory detention,\u201d said a public affairs officer with U.S. Immigration in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
Wright describes his detainment as an emotional roller coaster and it\u2019s a \u201cday-by-day grind.\u201d He said it\u2019s hard being pulled in so many different directions and being kept in the dark about when this will have a definite solution.<\/p>\n
His hearings with a judge continue to get cancelled or pushed ahead. His original court date was slated for last Dec. 3, but was pushed forward multiple times since then.<\/p>\n
Wright said ICE uses these tactics to try and break the will of those detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s designed this way, so you will give up, that you have enough and you sign voluntary deportation papers and just go home, so you don\u2019t even get a shot to go through the court process,\u201d said Wright.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know guys that have been here for five to seven months and they haven\u2019t even been to court. There\u2019s guys (from different countries) in my dorm that have been here for two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wright said that while many people are led to believe that U.S. President Donald Trump is pursuing these actions through ICE to remove tough hardened criminals off the streets, it\u2019s simply not the case.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Curtis Wright with his daughter pictured in this undated photo. Wright, who was born in Edmonton, has spent four months in an ICE detention centre in Texas, even though he\u2019s lived in the United States for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u2018An eye-opener\u2019<\/p>\n
Wright said the the living conditions in these facilities is \u201cdownright awful.\u201d He went 41 days without being given his colitis medicine. The facilities are dirty and they\u2019re not getting fed proper portions of food.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as the treatment of people in here, I didn\u2019t think this kind of stuff went on in America. I didn\u2019t believe that the administration and the government of the United States would be as dishonest as they are. People in here aren\u2019t gang members, or drug dealers, they\u2019re not murderers, they\u2019re not convicts, they\u2019re just every day people, and it\u2019s an eye-opener,\u201d said Wright.<\/p>\n
Wright isn\u2019t one to shy away from his past. For a good portion of his life, he was addicted to alcohol after being molested as a child. At the age of 15, he was drug raped and that ultimately led him down a dark path.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been sober for four years and, through his recovery, he\u2019s owned his mistakes and looked at the positives in his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what led to my charge when I was 17, but my life has been a lot of struggle and there\u2019s been a lot of tough times, both mentally and emotionally. But I found a new way of life and ways to stay on the positive side of things,\u201d said Wright.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe programs that I work with today, it\u2019s taught me to accept my circumstances. I can take pity, anger and self-hatred, or I can just find ways to be strong for my family and maybe help some others along the way, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve tried to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paying it forward<\/p>\n
Wright and his family have started a Go Fund Me<\/a> to help pay for some of the legal costs that they\u2019ve endured, but the majority of the funds have been set aside to help others that Wright has met while being detained.<\/p>\n So far, he\u2019s helped 13 people from all around the world that have been detained in the five different facilities he\u2019s been locked up throughout Texas since November.<\/p>\n \u201cThroughout this experience, I get to hear good stories, like my buddy Ron from Nepal, who\u2019s been in here for over two years. We were able to get him a phone call so he could talk to his daughter on her 15th birthday,\u201d said Wright.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many of these people have no support. They have no money, no way to call home to their families.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve found a purpose in here, in a way to spend my time in a positive way, by helping the other men.<\/p>\n What happens now<\/p>\n Thomsen, the fiancee, said after Wright\u2019s hearings with the judge continued to get pushed forward, he met with Judge Jennifer L. Mazza on March 13. She forfeited his trial date and said she is ordering him to be deported.<\/p>\n Wright\u2019s lawyer Matt Mendez informed Mazza that they will appeal the decision and, despite filing significant evidence that Wright is being illegally detained and shouldn\u2019t be facing deportation, she denied the motion.<\/p>\n \u201cShe forfeited his trial. She completely made her own ruling on a day that was not supposed to be a trial day,\u201d said Thomsen.<\/p>\n \u201cHe never got to his calendar hearing. We have a month to file the appeal, but we\u2019re not going to file the appeal until the Habeas corpus request gets granted, because if we file the appeal without it, he risks being in there for a significant amount of time. Could be years.\u201d<\/p>\n A Habeas corpus is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual and request to bring the prisoner to court to determine whether their detention is lawful.<\/p>\n Thomsen fears that if they don\u2019t get the Habeas corpus in place within a couple of weeks, Wright will be deported and, while she and their daughter will move to Canada with him, he won\u2019t be able to see his two sons, who he\u2019s fought to gain 50-50 custody.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting seven weeks. We\u2019ve been patiently waiting for it to come through, and we\u2019re not sure why it\u2019s taking so long,\u201d said Thomsen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the only way he can get out and he can fight this case.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been gone for over four months now, and if he has to sit in there for another year, it\u2019s not worth it for him to miss out on his daughter growing up, or being able to talk to his boys.\u201d<\/p>\n Curtis Wright and his family pictured in this undated photo. Wright, a Canadian born in Edmonton, spent months in ICE detention after being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas, even though he\u2019s lived in the United States for nearly 30 years.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4eca7093b0b02eefe0fbb93163a3d704.jpeg\"\/)
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