Jasmine Mooney has spoken out after she was arrested by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained her.
After spending 12 days in different facilities in the Southwest, the American Pie Presents: The Book of Love actor said in an interview with CTV News at the Vancouver International Airport on Saturday that she was “still processing” exactly what happened to her.
“I haven’t slept in a while and haven’t eaten proper food in a while, so I’m just really going through the motions,” she told the network.
Mooney had been detained after crossing the San Ysidro border between Mexico and San Diego on March 3. She was carrying an incomplete application for a new Trade NAFTA (TN) work visa after her first was unexpectedly revoked, according to her mother, Alexis Eagles.
Eagles said her daughter was subsequently held for three nights at the border before being transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Centre in San Diego for three more.
She spoke to ABC’s 10 News San Diego from the facility about the “inhumane” conditions she experienced including sleeping on a mat with no pillow or blanket “with an aluminum foil wrapped over my body like a dead body for two and a half days.”
An online tracking system then indicated Mooney had been released, only for it to emerge that she had been transferred to the San Luis Detention Center in Arizona.
Mooney later confirmed that she arrived home in a since-expired Instagram Story, thanking everyone who reached out to her.
“I’m sorry if I haven’t been able to respond to everyone — just got home after what felt like escaping a deeply disturbing psychological experiment,” her message began. “I am beyond grateful for my friends, family, and the media who worked tirelessly to get me out — without them, I’d still be there. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone.”
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She continued: “While I was in prison, I began writing an essay about my experience, which I will be sharing soon. I refuse to let what happened break me; instead, I’m choosing to use my voice in the hope that it can help others.”
Speaking to CTV News, Mooney claimed she was given no information about why she was being detained or when she would be able to leave. “No one told me anything. Not once,” she said. “I still don’t even know how I’m home.”
When she was asked whether or not she regretted trying to apply for a new visa, she told the outlet “of course.”
“If I knew that that was even a possibility, like even a possibility that that could happen, I would have never, in a million years gone there,” Mooney said. “I’m telling you, from the second I got there to now, I can’t even process what just happened.”
An ICE spokesperson confirmed to People on Monday that Mooney was detained on March 3 “for not having legal documentation” to be in the U.S. and that she was “processed in accordance” with President Donald Trump’s “Securing Our Borders” executive order.
“All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the U.S., regardless of nationality,” the spokesperson continued.
