Cliona Ward, a 54-year-old Irish woman has been released from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility at Tacomain Washington after 17 days in custody.
TheNewsGuru reports that Ward who has lived legally in the US for decades was arrested and detained over a criminal record dating back almost 20 years.
The 54-year-old’ detention at San Francisco airport on 21 April, comes shortly after visiting her sick father in Ireland.
According to Ward’s lawyers, a California judge had agreed to an application for the original convictions to be formally overturned in a manner that would be recognised at a federal level, paving the way for her release.
The incarceration left Ward traumatised but she was thankful for the support and is now recuperating, her sister, Orla Holladay, wrote on a GoFundMe page. “Cliona is finally in her own bed and we are all ready for some quiet and reflection.”
Ward had requested food before returning home, Holladay wrote. “The first thing she did was jump on the bed and hug the pillows. She is in shock; filled with emotions, traumatized, full of gratitude, fear for the women she left behind.”
Erin Hall, a Washington-based attorney who represented Ward, said: “We are all extremely happy.”
Ward is originally from Dublin and moved as a child to the US where she obtained a green card, attended the University of California, in Santa Cruz, now works for a non-profit, pays taxes and cares for a chronically ill son who is a US citizen, according to Holladay.
A criminal record for drug possession and misdemeanours from 2007 and 2008 was expunged at state level but not federal, which put her in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s crackdown on documented as well as undocumented immigrants.