OTTAWA — A seven-year-old Canadian girl with autism has been detained at a notorious U.S. processing facility since Saturday, along with her mother, according to the husband and stepfather, who says they are both unlawfully detained.
Edward Warner says he, Tania Warner and their daughter, Ayla Lucas, were returning home after a baby shower in Raymondville, Texas, on Saturday. Home for the family is Kingsville, just a few hours from the U.S.-Mexico border. Edward says there was a border patrol checkpoint on the way back in Sarita, where they were asked to show identification documents.
“I presented mine and she presented her Texas driver’s licence, her work visa and her actual visa,” Edward, who is American, told CTV News. “After that, they took her in, saying that they needed to fingerprint her to get more information, and she never came back out.”
Tania is a Canadian citizen from British Columbia who moved to the United States about five years ago. Her family says she has been working on getting her green card and other immigration documents, along with those for Ayla.
Edward provided CTV News with a document related to Tania’s social security card, which shows her citizenship status listed as “Lawful Alien Allowed to Work.”
Edward says about 10 or 20 minutes after Tania was taken in, officers came back out and said Ayla needed fingerprinting also.
“She never came back out,” he said of his stepdaughter.
Edward does not have a clear picture of why the pair was detained, but says it had something to do with an issue officers found with Tania’s papers and her EAD – Employment Authorization Document – number.
“It’s scary, it’s really frustrating, especially when they have paperwork that’s good, and it doesn’t come up in the system as being good. It didn’t come up as having paperwork at all,” he said, although he wasn’t clear exactly what the issue was.
Edward says he was told the local centre needed to send their fingerprints to Washington, D.C., to be cleared, but Washington then decided the pair was not free to go.
‘No place for a seven-year-old’
The mother and daughter are being held at the Rio Grande Valley Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas. Colloquially known as Ursula, for its Ursula Avenue address, it came under fire during the first Trump administration for housing children in chain-link fencing akin to cages. It reopened in 2022 after renovations that included removing chain-link fencing.
“It’s no place for a seven-year-old to be,” Edward said.
“They’re using, like, space blankets in order to cover up. She’s having to use the mat from the floor to get a proper cover to keep warm. This food is terrible … it’s overcrowded, very loud, and they’re just very stressed out right now,” he said of what he’s hearing from his family, adding that they’ve only been able to have two short phone calls a day.
Edward calls the whole situation “horrifying.”
CTV News reached out to both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as well as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The government acknowledged the request but did not answer any questions by deadline.
Tania’s mother, Heather Fleck, spoke with CTV News from Naramata, B.C., by phone. She calls it “mind-boggling” that ICE would take a seven-year-old child into custody.
“She’s on the spectrum,” Fleck said of her granddaughter, Ayla. “This is going to be devastating.”
Fleck says her daughter is a “good person” who has never had a run-in with the law.
“She’s lovely. She just wants to be at home with her husband, and raise her child, and be happy,” she said.
Fleck adds that she feels far away, frustrated and “powerless.”
“It’s pretty stressful, because of the stories we get out of the (U.S.) of the ICE situation,” she said. “It’s not pretty. I wouldn’t want to wish anybody to have to go through it.”
One B.C.-based immigration lawyer says post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, after a time in a detention centre is possible, especially when the stay lasts for an extended period.
“These detention centres are not five-star hotels, and in the below one-star category is this particular detention centre,” Richard Kurland told CTV News. “That’s why we need to get them out and get them out now.”
Kurland says it’s not uncommon for ICE to detain entire families as they sort through an immigration situation – a process which can take days, weeks or months.
He says even a Canadian with the right U.S. paperwork is “in jeopardy.”
“You’re a stranger in a strange land.”
Meanwhile, Edward has been trying everything he can think of to help move the case along. He has secured a lawyer, launched a GoFundMe campaign and reached out to Global Affairs Canada (GAC).
GAC would not comment on the specific case, citing privacy.
A spokesperson told CTV News GAC is “aware of multiple cases of Canadians currently or previously in immigration-related detention in the U.S and has received requests for information and assistance from individuals and their family members.”
Both Edward and Fleck tell CTV News GAC staff at the consulate in Texas told them they could only help if the pair was looking to get back to Canada.
GAC officials in Ottawa would not specifically confirm or deny that, but said in a statement “consular officials provide assistance to all Canadians detained abroad, including those detained by ICE in the United States, in accordance with the Canadian Consular Services Charter.”
A GAC spokesperson said, in general, help can include making efforts to contact detainees and offer consular services, as well as helping to get them back to Canada if appropriate.
“Consular officials advocate for Canadian citizens abroad and raise concerns about justified and serious complaints of ill-treatment or discrimination with the local authorities but cannot exempt Canadians from local legal processes,” the spokesperson wrote.
Kurland fears seven-year-old Ayla may be a “pawn” in the bigger picture of trade and immigration tensions between Washington and Ottawa.
“We’re being revoked for our special relationship, and we have to be on guard,” he said, warning any Canadian who wants to travel to the U.S. to take precautions.
Edward just wants his wife and stepdaughter back home in Kingsville, where they’ve lived for five years.
“It’s very frustrating. It’s lonely, it’s quiet. I don’t care for it,” he said.
With files from CTV News producers Kristen Yu and Rachel Hanes
