An Irish woman who has lived legally in the US for four decades has been detained by immigration officials for the last week because of a criminal record dating back almost 20 years.

Cliona Ward, 54, was detained at San Francisco airport on 21 April after returning from Ireland to visit her sick father and is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Tacoma, Washington.

Ward holds a green card but has convictions for drug possession from 2007 and 2008, which she believed had been expunged, her family said.

    • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      The Irish were not considered white until around 1930 or so. When the demographic shifts in the US required we be white in order to stave off the dreaded brown folk. The old bigot who lived next door to me growing up called me a tater tot until her dying day. I remember my grandfather talking about how one day he had bankers basically offering him a loan. Up until that point he was treated like shit at the bank.

      Just go to http://www.rsdb.org/search?q=Irish

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Considering the US is going back to the 1800s, no better time to start treating the Irish like shit again.

      • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        MAGA will decide they want to deport Irish-Americans. Ireland will respond by saying they don’t let people claim residency that many generations back. MAGA will piss and moan. Eventually they will make a deal with the UK government. The UK government will build a large prison camp in Northern Ireland, right near the border with the Republic of Ireland. Irish Americans will be banished to the camp, in direct line of site from ROI land, until such time as ROI willingly accepts them in as refugees.

  • barneypiccolo@lemm.ee
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    4 days ago

    I have a close friend from Venezuela, who was a warded citizenship on December, so she thinks she’s safe. I’m keeping quiet, because I don’t want to scare her, but Venezuelans, who used to enjoy a special immigration privileges in America because their country was being led by a rogue dictator, has become one of the most demonized groups in America.

    The MAGA Nazis don’t respect anything, and having a green card or even citizenship isn’t going to save anyone. They want to deport people who were actually BORN here, they definitely want to kick out every person that was born elsewhere.

    • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org
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      4 days ago

      My friend, also naturalized and from Venezuela, knows he’s not safe. We’ve talked. It sucks.

  • BenLeMan@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Just wait until they figure out where Kash Patel is “really” from. Bet you the crocodile tears will run like rivers.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I’d be willing to bet the universal common denominator for anyone who isn’t brown is simply that they’re antifascist.

      • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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        Gotta say “antifa” (ann-TEE-fuh) so it sounds like a bad thing. Like an exotic gang, like al Qaeda or something. That way, normal people think antifa is the enemy, and in doing so, they support fascism without even knowing it.

        Naming and pronunciation are key. They got half of America terrified of a fucking train halfway across the world.

        • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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          4 days ago

          They should have called it antifash or something more catchy. Antifa needs better PR people.

    • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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      4 days ago

      They’ve also “deported” (exiled is a better word) actual citizens. Someone on a green card has less protection than that.

    • Xanza@lemm.ee
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      If she believed the drug charges were expunged and they were not, then she likely filled out the wrong immigration form and was granted residency because she “lied” on a government immigration document.

      With a drug charge she very likely would not have been approved for residency. But this also means it’s an oversight by USCIS, because the applicants criminal history should have been reviewed at the time of her application.

      Something isn’t adding up here.

      • 10001110101@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        There was a story a couple weeks ago about another person getting deported on expunged charges. I’m guessing some agencies still keep records after expungement (I’ve heard they still show up when getting security clearance), and they’re using that data.

        • M0oP0o@mander.xyz
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          My bet is on it was expunged and this is them just using arrest records to justify bullshit. Now they will call her a CRIMINAL and anything they do is fine, as she is a dirty criminal.

          The really really scary part is that they can arrest someone now on trumped up charges (like a judge that rules kidnapping is bad) then later “deport” them do to past arrests.

        • swelter_spark@reddthat.com
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          3 days ago

          In my experience, regular police or sheriffs’ deputies can still see details of “expunged” court cases in their system.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      4 days ago

      I guess the Irish and Italians aren’t white any more. We’re getting closer to pinning down the time period where America was ‘great’.

        • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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          4 days ago

          Despite the rise of anti-semitism, I actually think you guys might survive this one. I’m worried about the Italians, who only recently got their white status tentatively approved

          • kittenzrulz123
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            4 days ago

            Looking at the neo nazi groups rising in popularity makes me think otherwise

          • Lka1988@sh.itjust.works
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            Nah, I’d bet a sly Italian person slipping something about “the mob/mafia” in conversation with the maga morons would have maga rethinking antagonizing Italians.

            Plus, my wife has literal family ties to the mob (she’s part Sicilian)

        • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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          4 days ago

          it always ends up being jews in the end. first they came for the intellectuals, but the intellectuals already fled the country, then its race, poc, than the LGBTQ+ and then the jews, after that its non-loyalist supporters of the regime. at the same time getting rid of the opposition parties.

    • CouncilOfFriends@slrpnk.net
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      4 days ago

      I expect proving that you own some of Trump’s memecoin will be the only way to avoid deportation soon. The god emperor can forgive any sin if you kiss the ring

  • ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works
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    C’mon let this establish precedent so I can get ‘deported’ to the home country after 150 years.

    Also, why did she get sent across the country from San Fran to the SeaTac area? Is Washington acting like the Louisiana of the West Coast, what the fuck?

    • LordGimp@lemm.ee
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      Where exactly are you coming up with the idea that San Francisco California and Tacoma Washington are “across the country” from one another?

      • PNW clouds@infosec.pub
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        4 days ago

        We are a big country and Florida Keys to Maine is about 1800 miles, Wilmington NC to Barstow CA is about 2500 miles

        Seems like up and down should count too sometimes. But we need a better word than across, especially if it can’t be safely driven in a single day by a single driver without stopping to sleep.

        (San Fran to SeaTac is about 800 miles)

  • Ton@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    It would be hilarious to see this regime shooting itself in both feet before shooting itself in the head, if this weren’t some route to a full-blown ‘eMerGENcy’ which they can then use to deactivate democracy all together.