'American Pie' Actress Jasmine Mooney Put in 'Handcuffs' and 'Chains' While Detained by ICE: 'Felt Like We Had All Been Kidnapped'

“There was no explanation, no warning,” Mooney wrote in a piece for The Guardian. “One minute, I was in an immigration office talking to an officer about my work visa, which had been approved months before and allowed me, a Canadian, to work in the U.S. The next, I was told to put my hands against the wall, and patted down like a criminal before being sent to an ice detention center without the chance to talk to a lawyer.”

Mooney explained she found her passion project working in the United States, which is what brought her here. She applied for a Nafta work visa and, although she was turned down the first time, she was later approved. On one of her ventures back to the U.S. from Canada, she said an officer interrogated her about her first application being denied and revoked her visa. This led her to have to reapply and, upon going to the immigration office at the U.S.-Mexico border, she was detained.

“I was taken to a tiny, freezing cement cell with bright fluorescent lights and a toilet,” Mooney explained of the inhumane conditions. “There were five other women lying on their mats with the aluminum sheets wrapped over them, looking like dead bodies. The guard locked the door behind me.”

She said she was kept in there for two days, only allowed to leave briefly for food, and the lights were kept on the entire time.

On the third day, she was able to call her friend, and said she was provided with a “stack of paperwork to sign” and instructed she would be “given a five-year ban” unless she “applied for re-entry through the consulate.” Upon agreeing and signing the documents, they took her to another cell at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

The actress noted there were approximately 140 women in the prison with her, all of whom had been detained without warning, even though they had no criminal record.

She was eventually moved to the San Luis Regional Detention Center in Arizona, with chains wrapped around her waist and handcuffs around her wrists as she was transported. This facility was worse, as 30 women shared one room, hand towels were provided for showering, and one plastic spoon and a styrofoam cup for water were given to be used for every meal.

“Everything felt like it was meant to break you,” Mooney wrote. “We were locked in a room, no daylight, with no idea when we would get out... It felt like we had all been kidnapped, thrown into some sort of sick psychological experiment meant to strip us of every ounce of strength and dignity.”

When her story made headlines, Mooney was told she was getting released and taken back to her home in Canada. Her ICE agent — who never spoke to her while incarcerated — claimed if she signed a withdrawal form sooner, she could have left. They also said they didn’t realize she was willing to pay for her own flight home, something she said she “begged every officer to let her do."

“This is not just my story,” Mooney reflected. “It is the story of thousands and thousands of people still trapped in a system that profits from their suffering. I am writing in the hope that someone out there – someone with the power to change any of this – can help do something.”